Health Technology: A Fact and a Reality

Health Technology:  A Fact and a reality

            Health Technology is an important and interesting topic in this generation since big companies as Samsung and LG have found the way to make certain things simpler for the user with usage of their phones, for example the blood pressure application on their phones and smart watches, it allows users to measure its blood pressure by putting their fingers in the screen of the device.

The truth is that HIT (which stands for Health Information Technology) is more than those things, and with the given definition HIT is way different and more crucial than the slight incorporation of health gadgets meant to improve the user’s health and or facilitate to the common user the access to information about general health as it is perceived. Even though the common user perceives HIT as the mere progress and incorporation of the technology in daily health issues, the impact of the Health Information Technology goes way beyond than the development of mobile applications with the purpose of facilitation of information

But first of all, What is HIT?

According to Health information technology. (2017, September 28). Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_information_technology “Health information technology (HIT) is information technology applied to health and health care. It supports health information management across computerized systems and the secure exchange of health information between consumers, providers, payers, and quality monitors”.

Designed to prevent medical errors and to enhance healthcare system efficiency, the health information technology have become in a crucial tool for today’s healthcare system. According to the definition given by Eysenbach, G. (2001). What is e-health? Journal of Medical Internet Research, 3(2), e20. http://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3.2.e20 “e-health is an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, referring to health services and information  delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies. In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also a state-of-mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology.”  As it is noticeable this author uses the term e-health to define health information technology and as the “e” in the e-health can stand for electronic, this letter implies an infinite amount of different meanings that it can content. This “E’s” can stand for  the efficiency,  the enhancing quality of the healthcare system, the ethic usage of it, the enabling of information exchange and communication between healthcare establishments, the education of the physicians of the future,  and the extending of the scope of the healthcare to way beyond its conventional boundaries.

Parting of this detailed definition of it, it is completely impossible to deny the great positive impact that the health technology information has in the healthcare industry.  In fact the usage of computerized physician order entry and electronic health records have resulted very satisfactory and helpful for both academic and not academic hospitals. According to Buntin, M. B., Burke, M. F., Hoaglin, M. C., & Blumenthal, D. (2011). The Benefits Of Health Information Technology: A Review Of The Recent Literature Shows Predominantly Positive Results. Health Affairs, 30(3), 464-471. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0178 “Health information technology (IT) has the potential to improve the health of individuals and the performance of providers, yielding improved quality, cost savings, and greater engagement by patients in their own health care”, evidence of how HIT can actually assist physicians can be found in  Mccullough, J. S., Casey, M., Moscovice, I., & Prasad, S. (2010). The Effect Of Health Information Technology On Quality In U.S. Hospitals. Health Affairs, 29(4), 647-654. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0155 where it says: “Computerized physician order entry is an application that assists physicians in generating and accessing orders for prescriptions, laboratory tests, and other medical services. We defined health IT as an indicator variable equal to 1 for hospitals that have both electronic health records and computerized physician order entry and 0 otherwise” the usage of this program have become the usual and easiest way to prescribe medicine without wasting considerable amounts of time that could be perfectly invested in other matters, this increases the efficiency of the physician and benefits the patient as well, proving how the health information technology gives mostly positive outcomes.

According to Werder, Matthew (2015) "Health information technology: A key ingredient of the patient experience," Patient Experience Journal: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 19 “Health information technology’s impact on patient experience is categorized into four subgroups: first, quality, communication, and safety; second, technology tools;

third, technology as an enabler; and finally, the electronic health record (EHR) and access. It is important to note, that these categories are not the only categories and should not be considered a common distinction.” Health information technology even though it is related to the use of communication and the use of computers to enhance the healthcare efficiency it actually goes deeper but it is the adoption of a new system and the embrace to changes.

Personally, it is hard to think in surgical robots as it have been appearing and being a new commotion in the healthcare system. I assume my sensation could be the same that the doctors of elderly generations felt when the Electronic Health Record program was launched. However, as the EHR have become a fact and a reality in today’s hospitals it is necessary to assume that the HIT will continue evolving as it did before, and the new inventions should not be nothing to afraid the past and future generations of doctors.

In conclusion, health technology is an open field with endless possibilities, as people knows, as the time passes the advances of the technology increases so increases the advances of the healthcare. New diseases are appearing and it is necessary to find the most efficient way to combat them. Health information technology have become and a useful, crucial, and efficient way to help the doctors and the healthcare system to save time and money in order to accomplish that task, it is necessary for patients to be aware of how important and meaningful HIT is in the crucial order of the healthcare industry, and more important for doctors of past generations and futures who are concerned of the different contrasts that it may take, that truly health technology is not an speculation at all, but a fact and a very patentable reality.

References

1.        Health information technology. (2017, September 28). Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_information_technology

2.      Eysenbach, G. (2001). What is e-health? Journal of Medical Internet Research, 3(2), e20. http://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3.2.e20

3.      Buntin, M. B., Burke, M. F., Hoaglin, M. C., & Blumenthal, D. (2011). The Benefits Of Health Information Technology: A Review Of The Recent Literature Shows Predominantly Positive Results. Health Affairs, 30(3), 464-471. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0178

4.      Mccullough, J. S., Casey, M., Moscovice, I., & Prasad, S. (2010). The Effect Of Health Information Technology On Quality In U.S. Hospitals. Health Affairs, 29(4), 647-654. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0155

Werder, Matthew (2015) "Health information technology: A key ingredient of the patient experience," Patient Experience Journal: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 19