Understanding Health Information Technology and its Significance in the Healthcare Sector

Growth and development of the healthcare sector is and has always remained of prime importance for any country of the world. Talking particularly about India, the sector has seen some outstanding growth in the past few years and is also steadily contributing to the rapid economic and social progress of the nation. If you look at the scenario of healthcare in the country and beyond, you will see the condition is quite heartening. The changes that have come about in the past five years have given a major boost to patient care, medicines, and allied activities. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the advancement in the sector of health information technology has played a major role in this rapid rate of development of the healthcare sector as a whole.

Health Information Technology or HIT, in the simplest of terms, is the use of both computer software and hardware for storing, retrieval, sharing, and utilization of healthcare related information, knowledge, and data for better communication and decision making. The baby steps to HIT were seen in the 1950s when Gustav Wagner led the foundation of the first professional organization dealing with health informatics in Germany. The training programs on health informatics were started in countries like France and Germany in the 1960s, from where it then began to spread all over the world. The technology has come a long way since its nascent stage in the 20^th century.

Presently, Health IT is used in diverse medical arenas like pharmacy, nursing, public health, dentistry, biomedical research, and occupational therapy. The tools put to use for Health IT includes computers, formal medical terminologies, clinical guidelines, and communication and information systems.

The Importance of Health Information Technology in the Healthcare Sector

The fact that HIT has multiple roles to play towards the betterment and strengthening of the healthcare industry is evident from the fact that countries like France, USA, India, and more are increasingly focusing on further progression of the sector. A discussion of its worth can be well understood from its multifaceted usages as listed below.

Electronic Medical Records: The biggest contribution of Health Information Technology to the healthcare domain is the development of EMR (Electronic Medical Records). The technology has made it possible to convert vast medical information into a single database. The greatest advantage has been the storage of medical history, insurance information, medications, and so on at one place from where they can be availed at the click of a button.

The records of patients are now integrated with their pharmaceutical and laboratory information. There is now an availability of point of service information with regards to diagnosis, treatment, preventive services, and follow-ups. It will be a big revolution in the arena of patient care if all clinical care centers start using Health Information Technology. For instance, the clinical care providers would be able to easily gauge whether a patient with diabetes needs an immediate eye checkup or hemoglobin test.

Computerized Physician Order Entry: There can be a great deal of reduction in medical errors if Health IT is applied appropriately. HIT has made possible a system called computerized physician order entry or CPOE. Under CPOE, the physicians need to write all their orders online. The CPOE systems perform a check on whatever the physician has written, including the medications and dosages, and identify if the physician’s recommendations are accurate according to the patient’s profile or not. This concept of CPOE has significantly contributed to improving patient safety by dramatically reducing the probability of medication errors.

Clarity in Drug Prescription: The drug prescribing patterns are also going to change for the better with the use of technology. Apart from electronic prescriptions, there is also a system of establishing standardized barcode for dispensing drugs. This can prevent a lot of the common drug errors. Consumer information about the drugs will be improved to a great extent. There will be better clarity in drug packaging with dosage reminders, clear labels, and avoidance of similar sounding drug names. These error-proofing measures will reduce the risks related to the essential drugs.

Medical Revolution: Any discussion on the significance of Health IT would remain incomplete without a mention of its contribution to the field of medical education. Things like computer-assisted learning, human-patient simulators, and virtual reality are some of the key concepts that have been made possible by the advent of information technology. The significance of health informatics in bringing upon positive improvements in the sector has been already been well understood by the medical fraternity and this is why health informatics has been included as an important part of the curriculum of most of the advanced medical courses across the world. Since health IT visibly makes the job of healthcare professionals a lot easier and better than ever before, the new practitioners are more than ready to learn and implement the same in their work.

The aim of any medical innovation comes down to delivering a better quality of patient care. Likewise, the prime focus of any healthcare organization lies on getting better patient feedbacks and patient satisfaction. These key aspects have been made achievable by the implementation of information technology in the healthcare sector. The doctors, nurses, and the healthcare organizations, in general, are more alert and better equipped than ever before to serve their best to the patients.

Though a lot has been already done in the sphere of Health Information Technology and the entire healthcare sector is indeed benefitting from it a lot, but there are still many facets that are yet to be uncovered. In that sense, there is still a long way to go when it comes to realizing the full extent of Health Information Technology. With the proper utilization of HIT, the medical world is now looking ahead to bring down the medical costs to such an extent that high-end procedures can be made accessible to all economic classes. However, at present, there is a lot of work to be done to make that all-encompassing reach of information technology a possibility.

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