Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
There are so many ways to find information. Technology has opened the doors such that one can read another dissertation from across the globe. There are experts who disagree with each other and yet have evidence to back up their arguments. How can a clinical practitioner distinguish between good research and bad research?Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
HLT 490 Topic 1 DQ 2
Patients surf the Web, watch TV, and are becoming better informed about health issues. Clinicians are so busy in the workplace, it is almost impossible to stop for in services and budgets are so tight it is hard to send them to seminars. How can clinicians stay current with the latest research? Why is staying current so important?Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
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The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
Information technology has been transforming health care industry. This dissertation investigates the use of health information technology by health care providers and patients as well as its outcomes. This dissertation consists of three essays studying workflow optimization in hospital emergency departments, people’s search for online health information, and the relationships between EMR (Electronic Medical Records) usage and health care outcomes, respectively.
Hospital emergency departments’ capacities to deal with a patient surge play an important role in preparedness for natural or man-made disasters. The first essay examines how emergency departments could optimize workflows during extreme events when there is a patient surge. This essay proposes a framework to reconfigure workflows while maintaining treatment quality. Our results show that reorganizing lower-priority processes and relocating the resources associated with those processes can shorten total waiting time in emergency departments, allowing better management of patient flows. Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
People are increasingly using the Internet to access health information and the information obtained has an impact on their health care outcomes. The second essay examines the impacts of IT enablers and health motivators on people’s online health information search behaviors. We characterize users’ online health information search behaviors along three dimensions: the frequency of online health information search, the diversity of online health information usage, and the preference of the Internet for initial search. Using the 2003 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data on cancers, we find that ease of access to Internet and trust in online health information could affect all three dimensions of search behaviors. While perceived quality of communication with doctors has an impact on diversity of search and preference of search, we surprisingly do not find an impact on the frequency of search for online health information. In addition, our results find that perceived health status could affect both frequency and diversity of search for online health information. But we do not find evidence that perceived health status could lead to a preference for using the Internet as a source for health information.
The US government has initiated incentive programs to encourage the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR). To qualify for the incentive payment, health care providers need to demonstrate “meaningful use” of EMR systems, which requires the use of certified EMRs and the implementation of a set of standard functionalities. In the third essay, we examine how the meaningful use of EMRs would affect health care outcomes in outpatient settings. Our results show that the use of core functionalities required by “meaningful use” criteria and the use of certified EMRs have a positive impact on the quality and efficiency of care. In addition, we find the relationship between the “meaningful use” and quality of care is moderated by the length of EMR use. Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
For many years, doctors had to undergo strenuous processes which are lengthy, costly and arduous. Diseases are diagnosed through try and error which sometimes results into unnecessary deaths of patients. However, in the recent past, the field of medicine has had tremendous changes and developments. These developments have been made possible through the adoption of technology in medical procedures, a process known as medical technology.
Fullick defines medical technology as the use of a wide range of technological tools, techniques and procedures in provision of healthcare products (2011). Sneddon further illustrates that medical technology implies use of technology in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases (2007). The use of these modern technologies has helped improve the quality of healthcare products. Moreover, it has helped in reducing th severity or side effects associated with medications and treatments. Spekowius and Vendler put forward that medical technology has today focused on reducing cost of medical services (2011). The use of medical technology has also helped in reducing pain and unintended injuries that may result from treatments.
Medical technology ranges from use of simple tools or techniques such as condoms in prevention of sexually transmitted infections or wheelchairs to ease movement of handicapped people to use of highly advanced machines such as surgical robots and life-support machines. Medical technology has been intensively used in computer aided diagnosis, replacement of body organs, gene therapy and synthesis of personalized drugs.Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
History of Medical Technology
The history of medical technology dates to 1816 when the first stethoscope was invented. This was then followed by a successful blood transfusion in 1819. In late 1880, the first cholera vaccine was invented. Medical historian Broksky puts forward that the first dialysis machine was introduce in the medical field in 1942 (2010). Furthermore, use of technology in medicine facilitated successful surgery of the eye in 1975. The first transplanted of a human heart was also performed in 1969 (Duffin, 2010). All these activities were facilitated by adoption of technology in medicine.
Future of Medical Technology
In my opinion, the continued use of technology, especially computers in medical procedures will greatly impact the healthcare industry. For instance, computers have enabled efficient storage of medical information. Medical data is today stored electronically in form of databases and thus can be easily accessed whenever they are required. The computer systems are able to store huge amounts of data and information about the health history of an individual. This has greatly facilitated diagnosis of recurrent illnesses. Future computer systems that shall be used in healthcare facilities will undoubtedly overcome the challenges and inefficiencies of the current systems if appropriate technologies are adopted by healthcare service providers.Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay
According to Eaton and Kennedy, adoption of modern technologies in medicine will result into more accurate, reliable and rapid diagnosis of illnesses. It will also open up the medical field for more researches, for example bio engineering techniques (2007). Use of technology such as internet facilities will enable diagnosis and treatment of patients from their homes or places of convenience. There shall also be increased effectiveness and efficiency in monitoring, evaluation and supervision of treatments offered to patients.
However, great care should be taken when using technology in medicine, for example, information about patients stored in computer systems should be protected from hackers and unauthorized individual. This will help in ensuring privacy and confidentiality of patients. Furthermore, systems such as knowledge work systems or experts systems used in healthcare services should not be rendered sole power to control the whole diagnosis and treatment processes. Such systems can only be used to assist doctors in making decisions. Hill and Summers articulate that the development and adoption of information and communication technology in healthcare industry has facilitated efficient management of healthcare services provided (2008). For instance, computer networks has eased exchange of medical information, ideas and innovations, and thus improved quality of medical services. Helman asserts that in the near future, diagnosis of diseases will not be based on the symptoms only but also on detection of microbiological processes that prompt diseases (2010).
In conclusion, the interaction between technology and medicine has greatly help increase the quality of healthcare services, disease prevention and treatment. Medical technology has enabled treatment of world’s deadly diseases such as cancer through radiation and X-Rays. The cost of treating diseases has also dropped drastically.Information and Technology in Healthcare Essay