EVOLUTION OF HEALTH CARE

EVOLUTION OF HEALTH CARE

Evolution of Health Care

Introduction

The last 20 years have seen important changes in the way health professionals utilize and manage clinical data and health data resources. This item finds significant developments in IM ICT influencing EM, outlines the advantages and limitations and talks about what desires to be done at an organizational and wellbeing principle grade to realize the potential of the data expertise revolution. (Little 2010)

Discussion

Several IM&HCT developments over the years have had and will have impacts on the practice of EM. Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS) - The development and implementation of EDIS was pioneered in Australia and provided the benchmark for electronic patient registration and tracking systems. Its emergence has been instrumental in validating the Australasian Triage tally and benchmarking ED activity. (Blackwell 1998)

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is defined as the use of data and communication technology to provide health care services to individuals who are some expanse from the health care provider. Modes of communication include radio, telephone, and facsimile and full motion video. Its development and application in the late 1980s has seen important applications in rural medicine and the coordination of retrieval and emergency medical services. (Baggoley 1998)



Internet

Pioneered in the late 1960s as a way of networking between individual computers, the Internet has had a profound impact on IM ICT. The mid 1990s seen a fast expansion of online medical data, making publications, clinical assets and guidelines more accessible. The internet and intranet have facilitated the development of electronic clinical submissions such as electrical devices order application systems (EOS), radiology image archiving and communications systems (PACS) and issue of care submissions such as bedside charting in intensive care units. Over the last ten years, several attempts have been made at consolidating IM&ICT systems by aligning medical practice and hospital records into a more streamlined environment. (Feied 2000)

Electronic Health Records (EHR)

The limitations of customary paper based health records became evident from the early 1990s. Records could only be in a single location at any given time and could not accommodate the evolution of multimedia storage of images. Medical records evolved from a record of doctor patient interactions to instruments for modern multidisciplinary practice, evidence based medicine and complex health administration activities. In 1991 the American Institute of medicine articulated a vision for the comprehensive role of EHR in future clinical practice. EM has been slow to implement this technology. A randomized study in a Singaporean ED demonstrated significant improvements in documentation and coding after EHR implementation without affecting work flow. Other smaller investigations utilizing EHR and clinical decision support tools have glimpsed similar advantages and improvements in the rate of medication errors. (Murray 2010)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI or Cognitive systems technology refers to intelligent systems that are capable of real time adaptive reasoning and predicting results. A recent paper described the development of an AI system for predicting hemorrhage in an animal model based on clinical and electrocardiographic parameters. Such research could have significant implications for EM in the ...