Information Technology Innovations and Implementation

Question: Discuss about the Information Technology Innovations and Implementation. Answer: Introduction Advancement in health information system has enabled efficient management and transmission of patients health related information within the health care system. The system has been effectively utilized for routine screening, disease surveillance and management of huge patients related data. The six important component of health information system includes health informatics resources, indicators, data sources, data management, information products and dissemination and utilization of the technology for patients. Proper understanding of all this factor helps in smooth functioning of the system (Abdelhak et al., 2014).The purpose of this task is to analyse article on health information and technology issues and describe the key theme and learning in each article. It will help in identifying the challenges faced in health care field and it benefits or limitations to care for patients. The challenges and limitation will help identify mistakes committed in the process and the recommendati on will provide guideline to health care staffs and workers to improve the accuracy and reliability of health informatics and achieve better health outcome for patients. Analysis The table will present the key ideas, challenges, key learning and benefits of particular health information them after analysis of 8 media article related to health informatics. Source Main ideas presented Key implementation challenges and learnings IT Governance learnings Benefits or limitations to patients and patient care Other learnings Source 1: (Apps, 2016). The report provides an overview of the impact of information and communication technology on public health and delivery of care. In addition to this, it also explains the importance of following ethical principles to maximise the growth of eHealth. The challenges associated with the implementation of eHealth can be multifaceted and it may due to lack of organizational commitment and strategic plan for effectively introducing the technology in existing health care system. Many ethical and security issues might come up while adopting the new technology, hence in order to ensure proper integration of eHealth technology, one must address the legal and security related issues in such technology (Wu et al., 2014). Other important lessons learnt from this report is that WHO encourages all members states to make a long-term strategic plan according to legal framework to develop eHealth service in health care setting, facilitate better collaboration with appropriates public and private partnership. The key area of action for IT governance in the development of eHealth is that policies should lay more stress on promoting equitable and affordability of the technology so people from all walks of life can enjoy the benefits of health informatics. They should also give opportunity for creating network of excellence for best practice in eHealth by means coordination with policies and service improvement initiatives. The most important benefits of eHealth for patient is that it will lead swift action and taking rapid response to diseases. This is possible because eHealth will increase the speed of surveillance and screening for identification of disease. Faster screening process will lead to faster diagnosis and timely initiation of treatment process. It will lead to better management of health condition and improvement in public health. eHealth can be a risk for patients only when health care staff are not given adequate literacy and training to handle new and advances medical equipments and devices. Hence, eHealth literacy can solve this problem to enable smooth workflow in health sector (Watkins Xie, 2014). Other important elements covered in WHO report recommends following ethical guidelines and multisectorial collaboration to achieve compatibility all areas of eHealth. Its promise to provide technical support to all member states will facilitate the disseminations of best practices in successfully adopting the new technology in hospital setting. Source 2: (Cresswell Sheikh, 2013). This article gave detail on the technical, social and organizational challenges faced by organization during the implementation of health information technology in health care setting. The analysis of medical data bases related to the implementation and adoption of eHealth technology in hospital showed that resistance to the use of the system among health care staffs pose threat to patients. The range of factors included organizational issues like lack of training and effective communication regarding its use in hospitals and personal issues like fear with this technology due to lack of computer knowledge (Vest Gamm, 2010). This factor may negatively affect the workflow and lead to medical errors. The key learning is that without strategic planning, it is not possible to widen the use of health technology among health care staff. IT governance plays a very critical role in implementing health informatics and seeing the barrier in adoption of eHealth technology, it is necessary that IT governance focus on policies to address organizational issues in introducing new technology. Facilitating effective communication and approval of clinicians will help in promoting acceptance to health care technology (Savel Foldy, 2012). The limitation of health care technology is that resistance to technology and barrier in workflow may risk the life of patients. However, it has enabled use of appropriate technology in specific health situation and empowered patients to quickly access health information and support from remote locations (Househ et al., 2014). Other key learning from the challenges identified in implementation of health technology is that patient safety and quality of care can be improved by improvements in usability of the system. For example assessing the satisfaction of end user to such technology is essential to increase the reliability of the system (Middleton et al., 2013). Source 3: (The future is now, 2016). This article brings into focus the immense train in health service and the factors that contribute to this issue. It occurs due to ageing population, unexpected pattern of disease and rise in demand of high quality care. Hence, with this concept, the article provides example of range of innovative programme that delivers high quality care. Uncertainty and unpredictability due to several issues are the major challenge that the health care sector faces. The important findings from the article are as follows: 1) With the advent of health care technology, patients have gained access to medical records and enable them to easily manage health condition or illness. 2) Health informatics has helped to easily give health care knowledge to patients who lack understanding about disease and its pathophysiology. The ultimate benefit is prevention of disease after precautionary measures. 3) Holistic approach to care has been possible because due to diverse range of options. The main IT governance learnings is related to withdrawal from professional hierarchies by giving control in health care related task according to competency level. For example the Buurtzorg model adopted in USA and Japan has enabled nurses to look after fewer patients each day but spend longer time for care of each individual. This kind of approach will in building therapeutic relationship with patients. The main benefits of the health care technology for patient is that it has given them range of options for treatment according to their convenience and also enable them to quickly access health care information from online health care portal instantly. Patients can now easily operate medical equipments as evident from the self-dialysis unit at Rhyhov hospital. Innovative health care device has also lead to decrease in hospitalization rates and positive health behaviour in patients. It has also enabled people to get the right amount of health care support to manage illness. Another important fact proposed in the article was that it is necessary to break barriers all the categories of health service and introduce centres of health care outside clinical setting. New technology will specifically help in relocation of delivery of care to reach out to more and more people gradually. With this approach, many service can be readily available to patients from their home only (Street et al., 2013). Source 4: (17th PACI Task Force Meeting Executive Summary, 2016). This article summarizes the Global Information Technology Report which provides detail on the role of information and communication technology in supporting economic growth and employment in the world. It also gives current status of readiness towards information technology among NRIs and gives the economic profile of each country. The main challenges to new developments in the information and health care technology may occur due to slow growth economies across the world. The main learning facts is that as the data for growth in digitization is analysed country wise, it has been found that countries like North America and Western Europe see fewer employment benefits due to digitization. Hence, the correct formula for success will vary according to different country and nature of work in different industries. The main lesson for health care professionals is to take steps to promotes access to health information technology and arrange specific broadband infrastructure needed for the process. During the planning process, it is also necessary that policy makers identify new opportunities in the field to make the available in respective field. Making effective health care policy will also mean advancing relation between job creation and productivity during the digitization process. Hence, to create specific digitization agenda, it is necessary to critically analyse all inter-related factors to proceed to the right path. Patients care will be more efficient and accurate with the intelligent connection of people, process and the related data through Internet of Everything (IoE). It will lead to better opportunities for patients to receive highly advanced care in the most accessible manner and hence this network will drive excellent innovation in the health care sector. The limitations of the use of ICT for patients care is that it may hamper patients confidentiality when some of the patients health information are disclosed inappropriately due to failure in the system (Faden et al., 2013). This report summarising the economies of different countries showed that UK is top countries according to economies and therefore provides the most conducive environment for implementation of ICT in different industries. On the contrary, US was found to be the worst in terms of embracing this technology. The countries who succeeded in fully adopting the technology is a proof that they have achieved this mainly because of full commitment to have such technology and make peoples life better than before. Source 5: (Cresswell et al., 2013). This literature gives idea on the ten important factors that will lead to successful implementation and adoptions health information technology in health care sector. Issues or problems may arise during the implementation process in the absence of clarity for the need for such device and why it is needed in current health setting. Many physicians have also been found to oppose to this technology because they have more trust in the traditional method of processing of health care information. Hence better conceptualization is required to enhance reliability of health information technology and expanding its use in health service. Other important learning from the research article is that systemic organizational changes is required to make the implementation process successful and one can take lessons from organization which have already gone through this process and who are aware of the problem phase in each stage of implementation. To make the implementation process successful, the government can engage all key stakeholders to unite together and move forwards with shared vision of achieving better adoptability to such health care technology. This will helps to eliminate conflicts and resistance in adapting to such technology and enable better management of health informatics and its related changes. This will serve to achieve the purpose of implementing such technology and meet the goal of continuing with consistent improvement in healt carre service and patients health outcome. The limitation or risk to patients can arise only when proper approach or planning is not done before starting the process of implementing health care technology in hospitals. The main benefits for patient is that drifting away from traditional method of care will lead to fast delivery of health care service without the need of managing paper records. For example the implementation of electronic medical records has reduced medication order related to errors and enables safety in care (Tierney et al., 2013). Other important elements for successful implementation of health informatics is to assess the risk associated with the system and implement it only after monitoring the changes in other health care organization who have adopted such technologies or devices. The You tube video demonstrate various mobile based health applications that has come up with the advancement in internet and health care technology. The video demonstrated the presence of various applications to monitor blood sugar level or blood pressure just by smart phones. It has enables tracking activities with the click of smart phones and also gives alert to what is good for patients. It helps in tracking of day to day activities and maintains healthy habits in daily life. It also has the feature of personalization and the option to consult other friends who have more information about the system. For example the notification in fitbit or google fit provides patients with goals with daily life activities and identifies progress every day. It works to increase the motivation level in patients. Challenges in using this mobile applications is that it has chances of exposing patients privacy if downloaded from unreliable sources and hence it is necessary that patients do not blindly believe in all such technology and use their judgement properly along with consultation from family physician to use the best available applicatio ns in daily life. IT governance functions in promoting and advertising advanced health applications that people can easily access from internet. It will enable more people to know about useful health applications and motivate them to adapt to health habits and health related behavioural change in real life. Health application may be risky for those patients who do not exactly how to manage internet based data or those who end up totally depending on the technology in life. Although, it is necessary that people take adequate steps to consults their physician and also get it checked from them to see the credibility of the apps. The benefit of such application is that it will motivate patients to practice health habits in life when they will see their daily progress just from their smart phones instead of visiting physicians regularly. Other learnings from the video is that it is necessary that more research is done on making lives better for patients with disability with the use of health applications. The more diverse is the features of these apps, the greater chance it has of patients trust with such applications. It is also essential that this technology in accurately tested before releasing it in the market. Source 7: (Black et al., 2011). This systematic review gives over view of the impact of eHealth on the quality and safety of health care. It has often been found that certain claims made by device maker are not reflective of their actual potential and lead to hazardous outcome. The findings from the literature showed that there is lack empirical evidence regarding the in relation to the claim made in such technology. The main challenge of eHealth is that it may pose risk to patients and hamper the quality of care given in some cases. Since the research article showed that policy makers support new devices without proper testing and analysing the empirical evidence against the claims made by technology makers, it is necessary that strict action is taken strictly analyse all claims to ensure reliability of the device. There are immense benefits for patients due to advancement in storing and management of patient record, effective clinical support and the opportunity for patients to access care from a distance (Bergmo, 2015). The finding from the article is that there is large gap between the proposed benefit and actual benefit of all eHealth technology. In absence of strong evidence, the purpose and cost effectiveness of eHealth technology is not met. Source 8: (Joel Selanikio: The surprising seeds of a big-data revolution in healthcare, 2016). The video by Joel Selanikio gives detail on the huge amount of data available on internet and issues arising due to mismanagement of data entered in the digital world. The main challenges of the availability of too many data on internet is that it is a threat for people using certain site as hackers mis-utilize the data and try to trick users to give personal information which they should not give to strangers. There is also lack of information on actual disease related conditions to help patients manage their disease on day to day basis. Patients cannot totally rely on data available on internet. The government of different countries have the role in taking initiative to strengthen the data available in internet and invest in better infrastructure in health care setting to smoothly use this technology. The cloud based data on internet has immense health benefits for patient as it helps in timely identification of disease in particular region and take immediate steps to handle emergency case in epidemic or endemic area. The video also gave an alternative way of collection of data to be put on internet and address the challenges faced in handling such data. This data has been effectively utilized by biologist to probe genes and examine their evolution. It has also helped in discovering the genetic make-up of different cancers and their influence on patients (Marx, 2013). Conclusions The detailed review of 8 articles on the theme of health information technology gave insight into new findings on the development eHealth and other related technologies in health care setting. While the WHO report gave insight into the impact of eHealth on public health, the article by Creswell et al., (2013) gave idea about the key challenges faced in implementing health care technology in health care setting. Other information were related to role of communication technology in economic growth, availability of smart phone applications related to health, handling big data on internet and the factor to be considered for effective implementation. Hence all this information and different perspectives provides wider idea about ideal steps for implementation process. Kaye et al., (2013) also stressed that despite difference in issues in different countries, common barriers and success factors can be easily identifies. Recommendations The existence of health care technology is redundant when they are efficiently exploited to gain maximum benefits from this. The ideal steps for the implementation and adopt of health care technology is to first assess the expected and unexpected barrier during the process. The common barriers include lack of clarity of actual benefits and little support given to clinician and nurse to utilize the technology. The critical success factor includes innovative leadership, proper collaboration with all health care team and considering privacy legislation. Hence to succeed in effectively adopting health care technology, optimal balance between market dynamics, competition and choice is required to integrate the system. Apart from this, balance between privacy and quality of care will enhance improvement in health care technology (Kaye et al., (2013). References Apps. (2016).Apps.who.int. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/20378/1/WHA58_28-en.pdf?ua=1 Abdelhak, M., Grostick, S., Hanken, M. A. (2014).Health information: management of a strategic resource. 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