The Benefits of Information Technology in Healthcare Today

Posted by Emma Clark on April 19th, 2021

Today, information technologies (IT) play one of the most important roles in peoples lives. Thus, people depend on technologies that make their lives easier in almost all aspects. Particularly, various technologies are used in medicine due to their objectivity, efficiency, and reliability. In modern world, IT are implemented everywhere, and healthcare is no exception. Many countries have new technologies in their health sector actively for a long time. The introduction of information technology in medicine offers many different features such as the teleconsultation for patients and staff, the exchange of information on patients between various agencies, the remote recording of physiological parameters, and the control over surgeries in real time. These features bring healthcare to a new level and have a positive effect in all aspects of health-related activities.

At the same time, the information technologies in medicine have benefits but also some problems, while they serve different goals. Thus, modern medical research is not possible without using information technologies, including tomography, fluoroscopy, studies using isotopes, biochips, implants, software for electronic medical records, mobile diagnostic devices, and others. The amount of information obtained during such investigations cannot be processed without using computer technologies. Therefore, modern IT development has a positive impact on the growth of new medical care methods to the population as they enable an innovative approach in medicine and improve the quality of service.

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Computed Tomography

One of the best examples of the introduction of IT in medicine is a computed tomography. It is a method of studying the human state that measures the thin layers of internal organs consistently. As the result of processing these data records, specialists can form a complete three-dimensional image. Thus, X-ray, magnetic, ultrasonic, nuclear, and other physical measurements are used for computed tomography.

Information Technologies in Medical Research Laboratories

Computer technologies are the most widespread in various medical research laboratories, where programs use a certain diagnostic algorithm. Each disease corresponds to specific symptoms or syndromes in their expert databases. Currently, there exist more than 200 computer expert systems in the world. One of the most important implementations of the medical industry in recent years has been microarray technology, and it is valuable for the detection of various diseases. It also allows doctors to discover the cause of their occurrence in the shortest time possible. Owing to this technology, the treatment process has become faster. In addition, it is possible to monitor the reaction of the patients, taking drugs. This technology uses molecular biomarkers in laboratory diagnostics.

Information Technologies in Modern Oncology

Modern oncology is unthinkable without using IT. The development of specialized oncology information systems that provide tools for medical and technological process, their analysis, and decision-making has a scientific practical interest. For example, the advanced beam diagnostics technologies, which are based on digital information processing, storage and transfer it to the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) that are designed to work with images. Implementation of radiation therapy program is also based on the processing of topographic data with isodoses calculations for radiotherapy. The development of PACS is particularly important in radiological departments that combine radiotherapy, radiodiagnostics, medical physics department, and others. The medical specialized computer systems provide the functioning of these structural units by the PACS ideology.

Computer technologies for the cognitive visual analysis help to detect skin cancer quickly and accurately. Computer scanning of photos takes less than a second, which greatly exceeds the capabilities of a person. This method improves the efficiency of skin cancer diagnosis. Only in the United States, more than 5 million people undergo such diagnostics every year. The technology is based on multiple sets of tests. One reveals atypical color and skin texture changes. Another one registers a rapid growth of the affected areas and deviations from normal development in comparison with other people with the same genetic or demographic characteristics. After a comprehensive analysis of the results of all tests, the system allows a specialist to identify potential problems before they become visible to the human eye.

IT in the Management of Healthcare

Information technology plays an enormous role in the management of medical and healthcare organizations. For a long enough time, medical institutions have worked with a vast array of paper documentation, with large and long queues, and constant lack of time and resources to deliver quality and efficient medical services. The entire work process required significant human resources, and much time was spent on the collection and preservation of data. As a result, high quality and accuracy of medical records were rare. The situation has changed significantly over the last decade. Electronic systems have played one of the most important roles in the healthcare that is known today. Their correctness and high efficiency of the organization are outstanding. According to many polls and surveys, the comfortable and modern methods of personal records of new health information systems significantly reduce maintenance time of patients by 50% Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, & Blumenthal, 2011. At the same time, their focus on patients significantly improves the quality of the staff and the overall management of the organization. Therefore, information technology solutions have simplified the job of keeping medical records, registration, and archiving data.

Telecommunications and Remote Consultancies

Another positive point of IT is to increase the quality of care, from the very beginning of the work with the patient to the data transfer to the doctor and the analysis of data by saving them in the database and issuing the results. Thus, the usage of information technologies in medicine allows doctors to conduct online consultations at any time, which increases the availability of medical services. For example, in the states of Georgia and Texas, USA, the government has implemented the telecommunications link between health facilities, state prisons, and hospices. Therefore, information technologies give people the possibility to receive professional help from experienced doctors remotely.

Remote Control

Another direction in the field of public health that can bring radical changes in the system as a whole is the control exercised by patients. Remote control technology provided for patients have to move from the approbation and testing stage to the processing one. It will allow hospitals to offer assistance and to reduce the re-hospitalization expenses, which often occurs in chronic diseases (Mart?n-Lesende et al., 2011). Modern information technologies allow patients to control their medical reports as well as the delivery and distribution of medicines in hospitals.

The Human Factor

Information systems allow avoiding possible errors in the conservation and interaction with the data obtained. A quality designed system will automatically find all sorts of coincidences or discrepancies in databases, thus minimizing committing any errors caused by the human factor. One of the innovations of the latest models of information systems is the ability to integrate with other management systems. This flexibility will ensure accessibility to patient data from anywhere in the world, and patients will be confident in the reliability and security of data privacy. All of these benefits are focused mainly on the accuracy, quality, timeliness, and coherence of the system, but they also reduce errors, time, and human resources costs. In terms of finances, electronic systems also allow a person to control their cash flow, excluding the possibility of errors.

The Problems of IT in Healthcare

At the same time, one should also consider the problems of information systems in medicine. Firstly, almost all information systems are not immune to penetration and influence from the ill-wishers that pursue their selfish goals. People have tried to exploit such vulnerabilities since information systems have begun their functioning. Nevertheless, the transience of the computer systems development and their constant updates probably cannot solve the problem of conservation of total security completely. The second disadvantage is not the information technologies issue itself but the problem of the persons who work with it. It is the competence of the people who operate with the systems. However, in this case, everything is much easier: either the staff has not received a qualitative training or employees simply are not psychologically ready for innovations. Further, today the necessity of entering large amounts of data manually in medicine still prevails. It often leads to the risk of making a large number of mistakes, and it could put the work of entire organization at risk. Finally, at the moment, many information systems are integrated with a large number of cloud services, thereby increasing the risk of hacks and leaks of confidential information.. All of these problems are focused mainly on the security and qualification of personnel.

Conclusion

The introduction of information technologies in the health sector can improve the quality of service, particularly increase the staff’s working speed and lower the costs for patients. These benefits are now available for each clinic. The information technologies in the medicine make it possible to perform high-quality monitoring of patients state. Further, keeping electronic medical records can reduce the time that clinic employees spend on the filling in of various forms. All patient information is presented in one document that is accessible for the personnel of healthcare institutions, while the results of patient examinations and procedures are also introduced directly into the electronic medical record. It allows other experts to assess the quality of the prescribed treatment and to detect diagnostic errors.

The development of information technologies in various aspects, particularly in medicine, affects the speed of innovation. The growth and diversity of services gain momentum. In the nearest future, the impact of information technologies will be even stronger and bigger. People can endlessly weigh their benefits and disadvantages, but they will not deny IT’s usefulness in solving problems, especially those related to peoples health. Many researchers consider the development of information systems for the better because it increases the focus primarily on people, the facilitation of their lives, saves time and effort, and improves the management efficiency of the entire healthcare system.