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HIT in the direct care of patients

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Health information technology is radically changing the way people experience a clinical or hospital visit. For the patient, it is comforting to know that once you have given all your personal information, insurance information and billing information to the receptionist and it is entered into your computerized record—it won’t be something you have to do over and over again. For the doctor or medical personnel, the ease and efficiency is incomparable to the “old system” but many physicians will admit that the transition can be rocky. Charts or electronic medical records (EMR) are usually divided into computerized folders such as: patient information, patient history, lab and test results, medications, immunizations, allergies and so forth. The doctor and nurse can quickly access pertinent information instead of flipping through pages and pages of paper, trying to read difficult handwriting and trying to determine the most current information. The doctor can input up-to-date information during the office visit and order lab work as he or she says goodbye to the patient, then check results at lunch time in a wireless restaurant and prescribe necessarily medicines while making rounds at the hospital later that night. Previously, each of these steps of getting information and making orders (either for more tests or prescriptions) would have required a lot more time, paper and phone calls. As far as the patient is concerned, some systems are allowing the patient to receive test results on line. (Of course this would not be the case for a serious diagnosis, but would be great for a cholesterol test). Some patients are also able to receive online medical consultation or receive ongoing help in dealing with a chronic condition.

Expanding fields of healthcare information technology in patient care include the development of software and systems geared for specific specialties, such as cardiology or ICU care. There is also great interest in expanding HIT to better facilitate research, both for specific diseases like heart disease or cancer, and also for community health issues like influenza and mosquito-born illnesses. Some governments are trying to trying to encourage the use of healthcare information technology in both patient care and research by offering tutorials on all the aspects of information technology, for it is an undeniable fact that the use of information technology—in any field—requires a lot: initial, on-site training to use computers and the software, technical support available for day to day operations of the system, and finally, continued opportunities for educational development because information technology is constantly changing!

Next Page: A word about safety and security and HIT

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