1. Research the history of health information technology and trends in the management of health records.
Information Technology was introduced in healthcare in the late 1970s, when Medicare started to use computers widely in healthcare. Although punch cards and first computers were in use since the 1950s as well. Insurance companies can be considered as pioneers of Health Information Technology. It was in the 1990s, when the integration of computers with clinical systems was initiated. After that, health applications were developed by vendors to be run on integrated computers. After the evolution of LANs and WANs in computer networks, health care started to utilize these networks in clinical automation. Today, most technology vendors like Epic, Athenahealht, Cerner and Practice Fusion have a handshake with health care to implement modern technology for better care in an integrated and secure health information system. The next generation of health care is utilizing 3G and LTE telecom networks on handheld devices with the help of mobile applications for connecting clinics, pharmacies, vendors, labs and insurances.
Common trends utilized in the past for health information management include societies and organization like AHIMA or HIMMS dealing and defining rules of health management. Health information is being managed with the help of computer database systems in past few decades. Personal Health Records and Electronic Health Records are new trends of modern era used widely in healthcare. HL-7 is also widely using in handling health information in a secure way. Next trend that can be used in managing health information is Big Data and Hadoop is the tools being used for implementing Big Data in health care. Blue Button is also a widely used tool for managing personal information of each patient.
2. Why is health information technology and exchange essential to building a safer healthcare system?
There is a great need of health information exchange among peers involved in providing medical care. Information is required to be shared with medical providers, pharmacies, Labs, patient and insurance companies in a secure way. To diagnose and treat individual patients effectively, individual care suppliers and care groups should have access to a minimum of 3 major forms of clinical information—the patient's health record, the speedily dynamic medical-evidence base, and supplier orders guiding the method of patient care.
Information technology is helping to integrate these important information streams. Information technology can provide HIPAA compliant health information sharing among the required peers while providing the necessary health content to the authorized users. A safer health care system with integration of all required components with each other can be built with the help of Information Technology. Electronic and Personal Health Records integrated with basic components of health care can provide the best possible security solution to safer health care connected system.
3. How has health information management been impacted by technological advancements?
Now a day, the internet is the biggest and useful popular source for finding the medical information for everyone. All the health care services are available for the patients as well as providers through special medical applications. Technology has improved the medical treatment. It provides the new machines, medicines, and essential equipments to save the patient’s life. So, we can say that technology makes better treatment and less suffering. Improving the patient care and making practice management easy for medical providers so that they can focus on providing better care to patients. Advance technology helps to reach the doctors on their job easier. They can easily get patient information, medical reports etc. online by accessing the system’s databases. Easy communication among doctors to doctors and doctors to patients has significant effects on providing better care. Invention of Big Data will revolutionize the dealing of health information management. All necessary information will be available to the right person at the right time. Providers are having bird’s eye view of their practices and can get their progress trends, insurance claim aging and other information in an easy way.
4. Explain the role of the health information management department, in regards to the technology that they have, in health care organizations.
The health information management department has to deal with medical database and upgrading the system according to the modern advancements. The health information management department is responsible for proving the required information to the right person. They should utilize Big Data in to deal health information in a better way. Providers must be given the required information to take care of their practice. In order to cope with the problem, organizations must understand the importance of health information security. For that purpose, healthcare information security measuring laws like HIPAA and HITECH must me implemented in organizations. Personal Health Information (PHI) is secured by applying higher level security tools. Easy tools for doctors to create dynamic graphs and future trends of practice of providers can be implemented. The business intelligence module has been implemented by a vendor Practicefusion to have a view of practice in a dynamic way. 5. How can health officials use technology to study the impact of health interventions and disease prevention programs?
In order to implement and utilize modern information technology tools in healthcare, USA has initiated a program of Meaningful Use (MU). MU ensures the usage of modern information technology in healthcare by providing electronic interfaces for doctors and patients and providing better communication among them. Other technologies going to implemented in healthcare include Telemedicine (providing medical care remotely), Accountable Care Organizations (ACO, where multiple healthcare industries work together to provide better care) and Electronic /Personal Health Records (EHR/PHR) etc. Clinical Decision Support and population health management can be used in disease prevention program. Patient engagement is also necessary in order to provide better disease prevention. Appropriate patient education with the help of Medlineplus is also a better solution in avoiding diseases. ICD-9-/10 classification has significantly affected the performance of disease prevention. 6. How will electronic medical records contribute to improving patient safety?
The electronic medical health record or electronic health record (EHR) is possible to improve quality when implement. Use of electronic health record can improve communication between health care provider and also increase team effort among providers. EHR is also simplifying the documentation methods updating data appraisal and plan. Electronic health record also providing the advantage of improving the legibility of instruction and reducing a risk about medication errors. It is also a way of communicating with doctors about their medical report or Lab report and other data and information that are saved on EHR. EHRs include the features of creating patient charts, establishing patient claims and sending them to insurance using HL-7 format, e-Prescription for connecting with pharmacies, Lab order creation and viewing lab results. Task management has been reduced provider time and they can focus on patient health. The history of a patient is maintained against each visit and gradual improvement of patient health can be viewed on a single point. All these features have significantly affected the improvement of better care for patients.
