Week 4 Discussion.
Major Categories of Health Care IT Systems or Cutting Costs vs. Cutting Care
First Discussion topic:
Internet and eHealth
The internet and emergency of eHealth technologies have fundamentally altered the
nature of healthcare and the delivery and accessibility of that healthcare. These advances
have had a substantial influence both positive and negative on healthcare delivery.
For example, the common usage of secure e-mail can increase patient access to
their physician as well as provide the physician a means to quickly and conveniently stay
connected to their patients. This allows the physicians to better manage “non-urgent
medical tasks can improve physician capacity by allowing physicians to spend more time
with patients in face-to-face encounters.” (Rudolph et al., 2008)
Patients, especially the younger users have quickly adapted to become early
adopters of these new tools. In fact, since “the democratization of the Internet in the 1990s
medical and health topics are among the most-searched-for subject matters. Consumers
quickly grew accustomed to finding and using comparative choice information online, and
their options grew further with the introduction of 2.0 technologies in the first decade of
the 21st century.” (Ossebaard & Gemert-Pijnen, 2016)
This new connectivity has not come without some challenges as well that influence
the delivery of healthcare. For example, there are the logistics of integrating these new
technologies as well as other associated costs for things like cloud storage, more IT
infrastructure, and other services. Additionally, some patients are reluctant to incorporate
e-Health activities into their existing workflows due to “privacy concerns of patients who
fear the misuse of information shared among providers.” (Rudolph et al., 2008)
Looking deeper into the influence of the Internet and e-Health there is also a
scaling issue as well as a certain level of technological literacy required that could be a
barrier to entry. These tools come with logistical, ethical, and legal hurdles that influence
the path of healthcare, and “effective, large-scale deployment of e-Health activities must
also consider several medico-legal, financial, and technical issues. These issues range from
the basic identification of which e-Health activities are most beneficial to physicians and
patients to the identification of standards for managing the secure, private, and accurate
transmission of personal health information across a networked community.” (Rudolph et
al., 2008)
Second discussion topic:
Issues of cost, safety, benefit, and risk have accompanied technology
diffusion. Which do you consider the most important area for focus?
While I think that a compelling argument could be made for any of those factors, I
would submit that cost would be the most important area to focus on, as it is the most
direct barrier to accessing healthcare. When we look at costs we should look at total costs
and not just cost to the consumer, cost to the healthcare provider are also important as
many of those costs are passed on to consumers. As costs continue to rise, so does the
difficulty of the public and private sectors to finance health care. According to the
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Technological Innovation in Medicine, “the
economic impact of a technology is often confused with the purchase price of a piece of
equipment or a drug, or the fee paid to a surgeon. The total impact of technology on health
care costs is much broader than that and may include offsetting savings as well as induced
costs.” (Institute of Medicine et al., 1991)
New technology is a cost but can also streamline processes, safeguard patient
information and help deliver better outcomes. Since when new technology enters the
market, they do balance, improve healthcare and provide better patient outcomes than by
focusing on the costs we can improve the most areas, better technology influences safety,
security, and lower risks for both patients and healthcare providers. Regardless of the
source, the cost of healthcare needs to be addressed if we want to see large-scale
improvement in all areas.
References
Institute of Medicine, Committee on Technological Innovation in Medicine, Medicine, C.
T. I., Halm, E. A., & Gelijns, A. C. (1991).The Changing Economics of Medical
Technology. Amsterdam University Press.
Ossebaard, H. C., & Gemert-Pijnen, V. L. (2016, July 2).eHealth and quality in health
care: implementation time. OUP Academic.
https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article/28/3/415/1750408
Rudolph, M., Barr, M., & Kuhn, T. (2008).E- HEALTH AND ITS IMPACT ON MEDICAL
PRACTICE.
