Question

For class, be prepared to discuss the information technology being used and is in development to manage chronically ill clients. Determine how these impact the use of healthcare information and management technologies. And, how will they influence current and future nursing practice. Provide one example.

Answer 1

Technology today affects every single aspect of modern society. In fact, there isn’t an industry out there that hasn’t been affected by the hi-tech revolution. Medical technology is a broad field where innovation plays a crucial role in the delivery of health care.

The most significant influences technologies have had in medicine extend from better diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical procedures to conceptual diagnostics. Technology has reduced the rate of morbidity and mortality from medical errors by providing electronic prescriptions that allow physicians to know if there are interactions between drugs or drug to food.

Future technology use in public health field:

The Unites States of America can transform its healthcare system to make available inexpensive, unified and quality healthcare to all the patients. Health care is one of the most important sectors, which has adopted great technological changes to provide value delivery to patients. As, i believe by seeing the current trends then I am very much optimistic that health care and medical technology sector will be developed to a more sophisticated level. The failure of machines will be improved and one can say that the reliability of medical intervention will be upgraded to highest possible level. The growth of biomedical knowledge and the ubiquitous availability of computer-based information access and knowledge management tools will expand the types of jobs in the health care workforce and provide new business opportunities for support industries. No current category of health professional appears to face extinction, but pressure will mount to abandon the current model of autonomous practitioners depending upon their personal memory and experience to deliver optimal care.

Advanced technology changed health care system for example:

1. The widespread adoption of electronic health records has resulted in significant savings in health care costs as well as improved patient health and safety.

2. Minimally invasive surgeries, especially within the disciplines of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, have also become more common in recent years.

3. Population science is essentially the study of health and illness within groups. In the past, public health workers primarily applied this field of study during outbreaks.

4. Evidence based guidelines allow doctors to figure out the likely causes of a symptom and the best way to treat it.

5. Healthcare professionals who work with medical billing and coding know the strides technology has made.

6. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases, the ICD-10 is the latest revision of this diagnostic tool is using for medical Practice nowadays.

7. The demand for MRI Technologists and radiologists has also increased as a result of rapid advances in imaging technology.

Practicing nurse and future technology use:

Nurses acknowledge the advantages of using technology, they also say training is sometimes inadequate, IT systems occasionally force them to rethink how they do their jobs, and technological snafus can impede their work.

But without a doubt, the introduction of new technologies may bring considerable changes to nurses' day-to-day work. Consider the experience of Texas's Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie after touch-screen computers were installed in the emergency department. The system has helped improve efficiency and patient care in a number of ways, says Mike Behning, RN, the emergency department's day supervisor. With the system in place:

Nurses don't have to find a doctor to get a patient's chart.

Charts are easier to read, minimizing potential errors.

Lab results are available in real time.

Various departments communicate better.

"Because of the time that is saved by using this system, it gives the nurses more time for more personalized care," Behning says.

But new technologies don't always result in more time for patients. Bar-code scanning, Bickford notes, can serve as part of a check-and-balance system for catching errors, but the bar-code systems aren't always convenient and can take up nurses' time. The same goes for automated medication systems, which may be designed more for the convenience of the pharmacy than for use during nurses' daily duties, she says. "Many times the technologies are imposed on nurses," Bickford explains. "There has not been thoughtful consideration about the work processes or the business processes."