Question

Question: How does the current health IT structure at your institution support or hinder the effectiveness of informatics specialists in nursing, medicine, and other disciplines?

Answer 1

Technological developments in healthcare have saved countless patients and are continuously improving our quality of life. Not only that, but technology in the medical field has had a massive impact on nearly all processes and practices of healthcare professionals.Nurses and technicians are responsible for inputting patient data into a central, digitized system. Medical billers and coders appointments update patient records with diagnostic codes and submit medical claims to insurance companies.EHRs provide invaluable data to clinical researchers, helping to advance medical knowledge and the development of treatments for common health problems .A standardized health IT system can provide insights into how widespread an outbreak is, enabling preventative measures to be put in place much more quickly.Entering data into a computerized system is much less time-consuming than paper-based methods, and it reduces the risk of errors in patient data and financial details. Accessing patient records digitally also allows medical coding experts to work from home, increasing efficiency and productivity.

Cloud computer technology allows for masses of information to be stored at an unbelievably low cost, all without the limitations (and expense) of additional hardware or servers. With an increased reliance on EHR systems, Cloud storage protects against the loss of sensitive data with strong backup and recovery services.

Another development is of "Advanced Life Support" (ACLS) simulators and Haptics "the science of touch" simulators are used in medical education to develop various clinical skills such as ECG interpretation, appropriate intervention such as ABC, drugs, injections, defibrillation without working on a real patient. These days, highly sophisticated simulators "virtual reality" with highly advanced medical simulation technologies and medical databases are available in the advanced medical schools that expose the medical students to the vast range of complex medical situations. It can emulate various clinical procedures such as catheterization, laparoscopy, bronchoscopy etc. With new technology, the students can virtually go inside each and every organ and see how they actually look like from outside as well as from inside.

Information technology has been very helpful to the healthcare sector. One example of a significant advancement that IT has provided to hospitals is the development of electronic medical records (EMR). This technology can convert medical information into a single database. Not only does this technology reduce paper costs, it allows healthcare providers to access pertinent patient information such as medical history, medications, insurance information, etc with just the click of a mouse.

EMRs hold great promise in the clinical arena. The ability to care for patients with a record that is integrated with laboratory and pharmacy information, and provides point of service information regarding preventive services, diagnosis, treatment, and follow up represents a dramatic advance in patient care. Improving and measuring quality would be instantly improved if all clinicians used EMRs. For example, it would be easy to prompt clinicians that their patient with diabetes needs an eye examination or a hemoglobin A1C level.Drug prescribing patterns of individual clinicians could be carefully evaluated and compared to established standards. In fact, computer based clinical support as part of an EMR has been shown to improve physician performance and patient outcomes.Reducing medical errors has become a priority all over the world. Specifically adverse drug events are an important source of injuries in hospitalised patients. In response to the need to improve patient safety, computerised physician order entry (CPOE) systems have become increasingly more common. In general, CPOE systems force physicians to write all orders online. These systems have the capacity to verify that written orders are correct, that is, based on a patient profile, they can automatically check the dose and contraindications of a specific drug. They have been shown to dramatically reduce serious medication errors.

There is no argument over the influence of IT in medicine and education. But there are still many areas which need to be improved before we could utilise IT to its full extent. Last but not the least, however advanced the technology gets, it can never replace the interaction the doctors and students require with the patient and the clinical judgments which make great doctors. So, in the pursuit of modern technologies, we should be careful that the doctor patient relationships do not get overlooked.