Information Technology Provides Benefits For Health Industry Essay

It excludes the option of face-to-face communication during examinations. Finally, telehealth focuses on educational and research purposes involving all types of caregivers with telecommunication between patient and health professionals. Health care delivery in its use of information, records, communication, and will continue to grow with the Internet. The rapid expansion of information technology into daily life and business has healthcare delivery begin to adopt and optimize the use of technology.

Health information is a fundamental piece of data which represents a person, business, organization, or a community. This data is vital in monitoring and coordination of care for individuals and communities. It not only monitors and coordinates patient care, but reduces costly mistakes and prevent duplication of treatments as well as taking a pivotal role in preserving, securing, and protecting personal health information. Since, this information is extremely essential and sensitive, it must remain secure and safe to prevent frauds and cyber-attacks. First of all, this paper discusses vitality of the health information in regards to individuals, professionals, and organizations along with its benefits to improve overall quality of life. Secondly, it discusses the role of information technology in various aspects of the industry and the what the future holds within IT.

With the enthusiasm for health information technology, potential risks and problems associated with electronic health records have received far less attention. Three fundamental security goals are essential to EHR systems: confidentiality, integrity and availability (Haas e26). Patients lose the protection of implied trust domain of medical institutions due to their medical record maintenance performed by non-medical enterprises (e27). Depending on the paradigm, enabling access to an increased number of users poses threats to security and privacy.

Another downfall or disadvantage of using this software is the concerns of client’s security. Most individuals think a disadvantage would be the security vulnerability for the client’s medical records. The ultimate concern is that hackers are still out there and may steal client’s personal information and possible compromise their identity. It does not matter how many password encryptions, security features added, and firewalls are put up, hackers can get in there. However, there are also companies that specialize in security measures for the maintenance of Electronic Health Records software.

     Abstract:  Electronic medical databases and the ability to store medical files in them have made our lives easier in many ways and riskier in others.  The main risk they pose is the safety of our personal data if put on an insecure an insecure medium.  What if someone gets their hands on your information and uses it in ways you don't approve of? Can you stop them?  To keep your information safe and to preserve faith in this invaluable technology, the issue of access must be addressed.  Guidelines are needed to establish who has access and how they may get it.  This is necessary for the security of the information a, to preserve privacy, and to maintain existing benefits.

The study focused on issues with the Information Communication Technology infrastructure and knowledge of the participants in the study. According to the article, the results of the study revealed that the ICT infrastructure in place was inadequate for e-health implementations due to other pre-existing challenges (Ouma & Herselman 2008). Some of the previous challenges included, lack of computer equipment, lack of computer skills, internet connection, out-dated and unreliable equipment, lack of broadband connection, fear of computers and many more. An overall conclusion of the study revealed that previous mentioned challenges should be addressed in the case of rural hospitals. The plan to meet the challenges was to enforce extensive training for management to educate organizations about e-health implementation.

The desideratum to secure patient’s records in a healthcare environment led to the adoption of the Electronic Health Records (EHR). The EHR is a computerized system that maintains the health record and contains a comprehensive health history of an individual. The availability of healthcare records in an electronic format has conveniently amended the quality of healthcare services. This paper presents a systematic literature review concerning the privacy and security issues that confront the medical industry in the utilization of electronic medical records.

The Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is a secure source of information that give clinicians real-time access to a variety of patient health information. It is a new technology in the health and hospital information field where clinical, demographic, and management information is entered in a electronic record. EMR information can be accessed such as patient history, billing or insurance data, allergies, immunizations, medications, orders, laboratory tests, diagnostic results, and images with just pushing a few keystrokes. It is an application technology that has enormous potential to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health care through decreased medical errors, increased preventative care and improved detection and treatment (Fiato, K. A., 2012).

The field of healthcare today is continuing to advance. The use of new emerging technologies is largely responsible for that. Healthcare professionals are able to communicate with one another and share pertinent patient information with one another faster, and easier than ever before. With the signing of legislation like the HITECH Act and the Affordable Care Act, healthcare organizations are beginning to transform the way patient information is used and stored. As healthcare pushes further toward more advanced technology the care that patients receive becomes more personalized and optimized allowing for shorter hospital stays and better care overall. But, as these new technologies are being implemented, risks to the security of patient

Although the recent advancements in technology and electronic medical record documentation are associated with improved quality of patient care, the potential for compromised security is at an all time high. As and methods of retrieval and means of access to medical records increases, emphasis must be placed on the importance of patient privacy and user accountability.

When you think of technology and health care, what do you initially think about? Do you think about the amazing innovations of the 20th and 21st century or the amazing price tag on all of this “advancement”? These days the rising cost of health care is on everyone’s minds. So, how can the cost of technology advancement help the cost of health care? Well, one solution comes down to what every doctor, pharmacist, nurse, administrator, and CEO uses on a daily basis, and that is records. Surprisingly, the health care industry is behind the power curve and finally technology is bringing the industry into the digital age. One of the biggest problems we face is there is no commonality in the patients records and nothing to safeguard them. The health care industry needs to start using an electronic health record (EHR) system in order to combat the issue of commonality and information security.

With the increased use of technology, there are new dangers of stolen information. More patients check their records online with their home computers, tablets or cell phones. This data loss can result from the device itself being lost or stolen, third party apps siphoning off data, or by sharing files through public cloud services. The patients are accessing their records, scheduling their doctors’ appointments via text or app, and health care providers are wirelessly sharing data. The health care industry has to acclimate to these changes in accessing patient information and make sure that their mobile access is secure and HIPAA compliant. They also need to find new ways to protect patient data, no matter how the data is being accessed. Of course, there is always the possibility of user error and the patients being at fault for divulging their personal information. Health care companies have to make sure that their staff and their patients are aware of ways to prevent compromising their data. Professionals should be trained and aware that it is not ok for them to email any patients’ records with the possibility of the transmission not being encrypted or the destination not being HIPAA compliant. The staff has to be prepared for any malicious occurrences in to protect the company’s networks. Due to increase in social media and people telling their life stories over the wide web, the privacy factor has become a grey area. Making sure that an end user is informed not to open

Health Informatics has been around for ages, but over the pass ten plus years the profession has increased with higher demand. Health informatics is one of the nation’s largest growth industries. Health informatics has grown as a discipline with specialization in areas within the health profession. This field of study incorporates procedure, theories and concepts from computer information science. As the medical profession increases so do the health data security and privacy has become a major growing concern. The main concern is protecting the privacy of medical patient information. Over the past few years there have been numerous medical information breaches, either by hackers or employees. Meanwhile, companies are being faced with security issues that result in expensive fines. On the other hand, there’s pro’s and con’s to health information and with this is different kinds of software. Overall, health informatics is changing along with health care.

Health information technology is information technology applied to health and healthcare. It supports storing, management of electronic health information and secure exchange of health information between physicians, health care, insurance providers, patients and other stakeholders. With the advancements in the healthcare industry and advent of health information technology, it is possible to tailor treatments specific to individual genetic structure, analyze treatment effectiveness beforehand, and researchers study clinical data in real-time to learn what works (Personalized Medicine). Implementation of health information technology creates a situation where treatments are better targeted, save money and time by identifying therapies likely to be effective for particular people.

In order to understand the problem domain it is necessary to understand the core concepts of computer security. Stewart et al (2008), discusses the primary goals of security as contained within the CIA Triad, which is the name given to the three primary security principles: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. The most important of these from the perspective of health data in medical practice is confidentiality. Confidentiality of information is paramount when dealing with medical information. This project will attempt to understand the state of confidentiality, availability and integrity in the surveyed hospitals.