Innovation
Scinapse is a high-powered, first-of-its-kind eventing medical app used to safely manage and support mass-participation events.
The app allows the expert medical team at Mediclinic Corporate Events to plan for events, reducing risk and optimising care.
“Eventing medicine requires detailed and accurate information to make early and difficult decisions while mitigating risk and ensuring the safety of all participants, crew and spectators,” explains Dr Darren Green, Medical Director of Mediclinic’s Corporate Events team. Since 2019, when it was first rolled out at the Cape Town Marathon, the Scinapse app, developed with AUX Studio, has provided just that.
Scinapse records and synchronises patient records in real time as a race or event unfolds, so all doctors and nurses along the route can share the same information. In this way, anyone in the team is empowered to provide the best quality service to thousands of athletes as they progress through sporting events – quickly, efficiently and more accurately than ever.
Mediclinic team member using Scinapse at the Cape Town Marathon.
The process
The app is loaded onto 10” tablets for optimum usability. “On event day, each of our doctors and nurses get a tablet when they arrive,” says Caroline Murray, Clinical Logistics Coordinator for Corporate Events. Each time a Scinapse user logs into a new event, a training module pops up that takes just 10 minutes to complete for new users.
Prior to an event, the Corporate Events medical team receives a database of participants from the organisers, which they then load onto Scinapse. Mediclinic also undertakes a pre-screening questionnaire with the athletes to gather their information, including next of kin, medical aid, allergies, medication and medical history. If there’s a last-minute entry on the day, their details can be loaded manually into the Scinapse system.
“The pre-populated database that’s married with Scinapse allows immediate entry clerking using the race number of the athlete,” Dr Green explains. “It also assists us when the athlete is unresponsive and cannot speak for themselves. Immediately, we’re then able to see the patient’s information.”
The benefits of live data
The nerve centre of every event is called the venue operations centre (VOC), comprising a chief commander from SAPS, the race director, chief medical officer and designated representatives from disaster management, SAPS, traffic management, law enforcement, fire department and emergency medical services. These role players meet hourly to review any issues, coordinate resources when problems arise and find solutions to ensure the safety of the event – based on the information received from Scinapse and all support services channels. Critical Mediclinic team members, including Dr Green form part of the VOC.
“The app facilitates peripheral access to satellite users such as the VOC, main race hospital and numerous medical stations along the course of the event,” says Dr Green. “The live dashboard accessed via computers in the VOC provides us with invaluable data to assess detailed information about all medical encounters on race day. The birds-eye view of specified parameters is at our fingertips throughout the event.”
This data allows the team to see, for example, when there’s an influx of patients coming in with dehydration. “Then people at each of the points along the route can put the humidex – a combination of humidity and temperature – into Scinapse so we can see what the humidex index is at a point along the route at any given time,” Murray explains. “Pie graphs are also generated to show us the breakdown. We can then provide a solution if we see humidex is going up and dehydration is increasing, by arranging logistics to get more ice to that point – a major benefit of receiving live data.
“If we see a recurrent trauma or medical trend, such as a high number of knee injuries at a particular point, we ask why,” Murray continues. “Then we determine if there’s an obstacle that people are falling over and ask the organisers to remove it.
“So, by analysing the real-time data and the patterns we’re seeing from one point to the next, we can start determining what’s happening on the route, predict what might happen later and see if there’s something we can do to mitigate this, like lining up appropriate resources. We’re using Scinapse to give us information we haven’t had before. This guides key role players and enhances the risk and medical management of the entire event.”
Dr Green says post-event reporting is rapid, concise and accurate, which is a major win in meeting the international consensus statement guidelines for medical encounters on events.
“Based on the data generated, we can see what resources to bring in the future, exactly how many people were seen at each point and with what kind of conditions,” adds Murray. “By joining the dots, we can feed back to the event organisers, and to our team for future planning.”
The Scinapse App adds another digital tool to the platforms Mediclinic is utilising to enhance the care and expertise being offered to their clients.