Question

What role do you see health information technology (HIT) playing in the future of healthcare? What applications does a healthcare provider use (HIT) for? What role does (HIT) play in meeting regulatory requirements such as "meaningful use?" How costly is (HIT) and what incentives if any, can a healthcare provider access to reduce the cost of implementing (HIT)?  

Answer 1

Health information technology is the use of information technology and services in the field of healthcare and associated services. HIT will play an important role in healthcare in future. It can democratize information and make this information easily available to people who require it. For eg: Doctors or nurses and students can access case studies or contact expert and discuss the issues. IT is also used to reduce administrative costs. This helps in reducing the overall cost of healthcare thereby creating cheap healthcare facilities.

HIT can be used by doctors to access past reports and cases of patients, accessing digital reports, patient history etc.HIT also helps doctors in remote areas connect with experts in other locations.

HIT can be used for maintaining digital records for regulatory compliances.

HIT is not costly compared to the cost of providing health care. It will reduce manpower and travelling costs, reduce time costs etc. Only digital infrastructure and equipments are needed some of which is already present in healthcare facilities.