Healthcare information technology systems
Evaluate healthcare information technology systems to ensure optimal performance outcomes in business and clinical processes.
Scenario
Technology has revolutionized healthcare significantly in recent years. As technology continues to evolve, healthcare leaders are focused on ways in which new technologies can be leveraged to improve costs, access, and quality of care.
You are the associate consultant for a health quality management organization. Your organization advises health service providers on ways to improve quality and safety in the delivery of care. You have been asked by the senior consultant to conduct research on a new technology that has the capacity to positively impact healthcare delivery. Use your research to write an executive summary detailing your findings regarding the technology.
Examples of technologies that have the potential to change healthcare and its delivery include:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
Centralized monitoring of hospital patients
Chatbots
Electronic underwear that prevents bedsores
Disinfectant lightbulbs
Instructions
Create an executive summary in which you discuss the following:
Identify a new or emerging technology that may significantly improve quality, increase access to care, and/or reduce long-term costs.
Discuss the global implications of implementing the selected technology.
Explain how the new technology may result in improved outcomes and increased efficiency.
Describe potential challenges to implementing the technology and proposed solutions to those challenges.
Sample Solution
New Technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Global Implications: AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery across the globe. It can be used to improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis, treatment, and care coordination. AI can also be used to develop new personalized treatment plans and to predict and prevent disease.
Improved Outcomes and Increased Efficiency: AI can improve healthcare outcomes and increase efficiency in a number of ways. For example, AI can be used to:
- Improve the accuracy of diagnosis by analyzing large amounts of medical data and identifying patterns that may not be visible to human doctors.
Full Answer Section
- Develop personalized treatment plans by taking into account individual patient factors such as genetic makeup, medical history, and lifestyle.
- Predict and prevent disease by identifying patients who are at risk for developing certain conditions.
- Automate tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing patient records, and coding claims.
- Cost: AI systems can be expensive to develop and implement.
- Data privacy and security: AI systems rely on large amounts of data, which raises concerns about data privacy and security.
- Ethical concerns: There are a number of ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI in healthcare, such as the potential for bias and the question of who should be responsible for decisions made by AI systems.
- Government funding: Governments can provide funding for the development and implementation of AI systems in healthcare.
- Public-private partnerships: Public-private partnerships can help to reduce the cost of developing and implementing AI systems.
- Data governance policies: Data governance policies can be developed to protect patient privacy and security.
- Ethical guidelines: Ethical guidelines can be developed to guide the use of AI in healthcare.
- Training and support: Healthcare providers will need to be trained on how to use AI systems effectively. Additionally, technical support should be available to help troubleshoot any problems that may arise.
- Integration with existing systems: AI systems need to be integrated with existing healthcare information technology systems. This can be a complex and challenging task.
- Evaluation and monitoring: It is important to evaluate and monitor the performance of AI systems to ensure that they are meeting expectations and that they are not causing any unintended harm.