Digital Transformation of Healthcare – How Information Technology revamping Healthcare
Information Technology in Healthcare, commonly known as Health Information Technology (HIT) is application of information technology & infrastructure used to record, analyze, and share patient health data & clinical data. In India we have more potential for Health IT because very few Hospitals are using it, rest others still prefer paper based documentation. HIT is a comprehensive & integrated IT platform manage administrative, financial & clinical operations of a hospital for managing information among different stakeholders such as Doctors, Patients, Hospital staff & others.
Use of IT in healthcare transforms the complete scenario of patient care & precise medication. In case of paper base records, there can be high chances of loss of data, misinterpretation, limited access and high cost of data management, while in case of Health IT we have centralized data available for anywhere-anytime access and it also minimizes the misinterpretation & human errors.
Noteworthy benefits of information technology include: patient centric healthcare, improves patient care, effectiveness, safety, efficiency, reduced paperwork, faster prescriptions & minimizes waiting time. Use of Health IT is revamping the patient care of global level by improving quality & effectiveness.Automation of many operations helps doctors & staff to focus more on patient care.
Importance of EHR/EMR
EMR is digital version of information paper based medical records of a patient. EMR consist medical history, diagnosis, treatment details, lab reports, doctor recommendations from one healthcare provider. EMR has limited health information of a patient while EHR is complete & broader view of a patient’s health. EHR consist of complete health information of a patient in digital format. EHR has information of all treatment history & details, medical history, allergies, medications, family medical history, surgeries or any other medical/clinical information. EHR can be easily shared with other stakeholders for fast & better patient care.
EMR is first step in transformation of Health care & patient safety while EHR is next & more detailed step towards preventive patient care. EMR/EHR helps healthcare providers/practitioners in fast diagnosis, decision making & precise treatment. It also reduces healthcare costs as it reduces unnecessary tests & revisits which will be great experience for patient. Patients can access/exchange their health records with healthcare providers for better & quick care.
How HIT benefits Healthcare providers
- Quick access to clinical & historical data of patient
- Improving safety & effectiveness of patient care
- Fast & better clinical decision making
- Minimizing medical errors
- Safer, Fast & legible prescribing
- Streamlined & accurate patient information helps in preventive care
- Save physical space by eliminating physical records
- Reduced Hospital expenses
- Increased face time with patients
- Reduced Healthcare costs
- Shifting to Proactive/ Preventive healthcare from reactive healthcare
- Improve coordination & communication between different departments/stakeholders
Access to Healthcare Services (Patient Mobile App/Portal)
Access to healthcare services is one of the major challenges of India’s healthcare because the distribution of doctors/healthcare providers among urban & rural population is uneven. Some cities are high concentration of doctors where some have a very low count of doctors. HIT is helping all to provide access to healthcare services (Telemedicine, sharing patient health records & consult with doctors of other cities, online consultation etc.).
On Patient App/Portal, Patients can access their EHR/EMR, treatment, medical history, appointments, and bills & also communicate with their Doctors. Patients can manage their healthcare needs by tracking different information/ health parameters/recommendations by Doctors.
Patient App/Portal gives more control to Patient to manage their healthcare needs on their phone/tablet by anytime, anywhere access to Healthcare services & data. They can get alerts/ notifications from healthcare providers without waiting or calling. They can check availability of Doctors & book appointment at the time which is convenient to both of them and do the payment online. Access to all their bills & health reports provides more transparency & trust to patients. E-prescriptions give access to legible document of medications & health records.