The Importance Of Information Technology In Healthcare

The technological development and digitization of our current healthcare system, has revolutionized our current healthcare environment. Therefore, the healthcare industry is going through a drastic shift where patients are becoming more and more involved. Also, these patients are gradually transforming from passive learners to active learners for their own healthcare. Furthermore, all these changes have lead to the emergence of a patient-centered care from a hospital centered care.

Main Points of the Article

With the increase in accessibility to the internet, today’s patients are more knowledgeable and empowered than those in the past (Murphy, 2011). So, patients approaching a healthcare provider for a treatment as increasingly being seen

CDSS has been defined as an “automated process for comparing patient-specific characteristics against computerized knowledge base for clinical decision making” (Bryan & Boren, 2008). With the use of web-based CDSS users can quickly access clinical information from any location (Ozel, Bilge,Zayim,& Cengiz, 2013). Healthcare is such a busy environment where there are a number of patients being seen from a day to day basis. Therefore, in such a fast pace environment the likelihood to make medical errors also increases (Ozel et al., 2013). In such a scenario, to limit medical errors and provide effective care, physicians need to make decisions as fast and decisively as possible especially in the intensive care unit (ICU). So, in other words decision-making “requires a quick access to clinical inputs and medical references”(Ozel et al., 2013). Therefore, CDSS plays an important role in expedited the decision-making process while being efficient tool for improving patient care(Ozel et al.,

With the digitalization of the healthcare, it has become almost essential to also implement technology when it comes to pharmacy needs. This tool is a great strategy to help keeping patient medication records safe and well managed (Falconer, Nand, Liow, Jackson, & Seddon, 2014). Also, PIS can potentially reduce medical costs and medical errors (Falconer et al. 2014). For instance, the patient has an allergic reaction to a certain medication by having the PIS linked with the EMR such medical errors can be prevented. Another benefit was satisfied pharmacist and technicians as they can eliminate the not legible handwritten notes by the healthcare providers. One of the biggest challenge faced is having enough funds to support such a collaborative IT interface (Falconer et al. 2014). Also, there is a risk to patient’ healthcare