We often face situations when the exact etiological diagnosis of meningitis is difficult. The reason behind this is that many pathogens have similar clinical, radiological, and laboratory pictures. The low yield of the pathogen in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), non-availability of detail tests in all corners of the world, delay in availability of reliable results (like cultures), and difficulty in performing confirmatory tests like brain biopsy (in inconclusive cases) make the job of a clinician challenging. We report here a case where a late diagnosis of a disease owing to inconclusive results leads to dissemination. The complications following the introduction of the treatment based on presumption lead to further difficulty. We remained inclined to our diagnosis based on clinical judgement, acknowledged and managed the inflammatory changes secondary to the infection, and finally won the long battle. So, sometimes we need to make decisions based on clinical grounds. We need to depend on the fact that uncommon presentations of common diseases are commoner than a common presentation of uncommon diseases.
Medical data sharing needs to be done with the utmost respect for privacy and security. It contains intimate data of the patient and any access to it must be highly regulated. With the emergence of vertical solutions in healthcare institutions, interoperability across organisations has been hindered. The authors of this paper propose a blockchain based medical-data sharing solution, utilising Hyperledger Fabric to regulate access to medical data, and using the InterPlanatory File System for its storage. We believe that the combination of these two distributed solutions can enable patients to access their medical records across healthcare institutions while ensuring non-repudiation, immutability and providing data-ownership. It would enable healthcare practitioners to access all previous medical records in a single location, empowering them with the data required for the effective diagnosis and treatment of patients. Making it safe and straightforward, it would also enable patients to share medical data with research institutions, leading to the creation of reliable data sets, laying the groundwork required for the creation of personalised medicine.
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