Health Information Technology Research Paper

Introduction:
Health Information Technology (HIT) is the area of information technology that involves both computer hardware and software. Additionally, it involves storage and sharing of information. The intention is to improve the healthcare industry by increasing the efficiency, quality, safety, accuracy and patient satisfaction through a technology driven healthcare network. Now that I have defined health information technology, I can now look what it entails. Some of the major components of HIT are electronic health record (EHR), personal health record (PHR), e-prescriptions, personal health tools, and online communication.

Health Information Technology includes:
1-Electronic health record (EHR):
Also known as electronic medical record

In addition, PHR allows the patient to communicate with providers and keep track of information in the doctor's office. By utilizing PHR, the patient can track exercise plans, diet plans, diagnosis lists, medication lists, allergy lists, immunization histories, blood pressure and much more.
3-E-prescribing:
Electronic prescribing or e-prescribing is the computer-based electronic generation that allows the healthcare provider to communicate directly with the pharmacy. Therefore, the patient doesn’t need to physically bring a paper prescription to their pharmacy. In addition, e-prescribing helps to reduce the risks associated with traditional prescription writing such as losing prescriptions form and handwriting errors.
4-Personal health tools:
Personal health tools are tools that help patients to manage their health records and track progress by using smartphone applications. These applications can assist in setting up and monitoring fitness goals, reminders for doctor's appointments and medications.
5-Online

First, health information technology would improve access at any time or place by enabling patients and providers to have direct access to the health information for managing health and care and this would help reduce duplicate tests and improve medication management. Second, Healthcare providers who use electronic health records are able to review patient records much faster than through paper charts. Third, electronic prescriptions help healthcare providers to save time and allows patients to receive medication faster. Moreover, health information technology allows to reduce the cost by avoiding repeat tests and offering the ability to download and send health information to other providers or mobile application. Furthermore, using electronic health records allows for faster retrieval of lab and radiology results than through the traditional methods. Last but not least, using healthcare informatics would improve efficiency and productivity, and it can help to reduce redundant paperwork and eliminate duplication in lab results and prescriptions. Additionally, one of the most important aspects of health information technology is information security and