The Health Care IT Revolution
Over the past two decades, modern medical care has been radically altered by the introduction and implementation of innovative technologies. Medical equipment continues to get more advanced and effective in treating and preventing disease. Mobile devices and applications have reshaped the use of IT in health care by enabling real-time monitoring of patients and remote control of medical systems. Billing is now faster and more accurate. Patient medical records are more portable and secure than ever before.
This digital transformation of the entire industry happened in less than a generation, and its impact affects patient outcomes and the financial performance of medical and health insurance practices.
According to RAND Corp., $81 billion could be saved annually by thoroughly modernizing the health care IT system.
Some of the key ways information technology is having an impact on health care include the following:
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)
Among the largest and most important efforts underway in the health care industry is the move toward universal and standardized EMRs, which cover nearly every aspect of medical care delivery – laboratory test results, physician services, patient history, prescription records, medical billing – and are the foundation of the technology revolution in health care. EMRs make the health care system more efficient and less costly, reduce medical errors and improve diagnostic accuracy, and improve the quality and convenience of patient care.
With EMRs, information is available whenever and wherever it is needed. When fully functional and exchangeable, EMRs offer significant benefits over paper records, with physicians reporting an increased ability to make well-informed treatment decisions quickly and safely.
Enhanced Health Care Information Flow
Beyond the strict, government-defined boundaries of EMRs lies an even greater realm of technology-enabled information-sharing transforming health care as we know it. Doctors and patients have immediate and remote access to medical care quality measurements and reporting, medical product safety data and comparative effectiveness of new and innovative treatments. Such access has made it possible for health care managers to target investment priorities and has empowered patients with unprecedented access to information on drugs, procedures, risk factors and costs.
None of this enhanced data flow would be possible without the many improvements modern IT has brought to the health care industry via advanced networking, security, storage and data analysis tools. The impact is especially pronounced in global medical research and comparative studies, areas in which information processing and sharing play pivotal roles in qualitative medical developments.
Computerized Physician/Provider Order Entry (CPOE)
If elevating the quality of health care is the most important aspect of this form of IT, then decreased errors by physicians and health care providers in the prescription process is one of health care IT’s top benefits. Prescribing errors are the largest identified source of preventable hospital medical error. CPOE allows the direct entry of medical orders by licensed professionals into an IT system that reduces errors by minimizing the ambiguity of hand-written orders.
Evidence suggests modern CPOE systems can reduce the medication error rate by 80 percent and cut errors that have potential for serious harm or death by 55 percent. When combined with other technology-driven clinical decision support (CDS) tools, CPOE not only allows professionals to avoid medical errors, but improves health care quality and efficiency.
Mobile Applications: Next-Gen Health Care IT
Mobile and handheld devices and the applications they offer have evolved from curious gadgets to the cutting edge of technology-assisted health care. Today’s doctors, nurses, lab technicians and medical facility administrators leverage mobile technologies as indispensable tools to improve administrative, technical and medical tasks.
Mobile devices deliver medical records and other information to treating physicians and other members of the health care team. Tasks are synched and streamlined so health care professionals can focus more on patient care than administrative duties.
The Growing Market
All of this rapid advancement and growing adoption of innovative technologies in health care IT are fueling a lucrative IT sector where spending is outpacing the IT industry at large and most other vertically focused IT markets. Already in excess of $40 billion annually, the global market for health care hardware, software and services is estimated to reach $56.7 billion by 2017* because of the significant demand for clinical IT, administrative solutions and services.
Major factors driving the growth of health care IT worldwide include pressure to cut health care costs, growing demand to integrate health care systems, the high rate of ROI while using health care IT systems, growing demand of CPOE adoption, and significant financial support from the government to implement IT modernization.
North America commands the highest share of the health care information technology market because of government investment and incentives, along with growing demand by investors for integrated health care IT systems. According to Insight Research Corp., the $3 trillion ecosystem of global hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers will spend more than $100 billion through 2017 on telecommunications services and equipment. The compound effect of an aging population and advancements in clinical treatment technologies will require health care delivery systems that can synthesize diagnostic data, provide immediate clinical recommendations and build a repository of health care information to advance treatments, according to Insight. **
