IT and Knowledge Managment Solutions for Healthcare Problems

Healthcare is one of the top social and economic problems facing Americans today. The rising cost of medical care and health insurance is impacting the livelihood of many Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for necessary medical care is no longer a problem affecting only the uninsured, but is increasingly becoming a problem for those with health insurance as well. One way to better improve healthcare and perhaps lower the cost to patients is to improve the status of the current knowledge management systems in place through developments in information technology. Making a real difference in health care is not about expensive new technologies like robots performing surgery or treatments and unnecessary tests. It’s about getting the right information to the right place at the right time. By applying all that experts have learned about the effectiveness of information technology in other industries, we can dramatically improve the efficiency of the health-care system and the quality of care it delivers. I read an interesting fact that in the U.S., 25 percent of medical claims and 65 percent of medical records are paper based. Having these records digitally based could allow the records to be shared or studied by doctors at hospitals / doctor offices everywhere. For providers, technology can dramatically improve the quality of care by ensuring that the right thing is done at the right time, in the right way, for the right person. (In the U.S. alone, up to 98,000 deaths per year are attributed to medical errors). Looking ahead, the country needs to take an open-standards approach that eases collaboration and information sharing across the entire health-care continuum. The end goal should be a “digital health” system with the patient as the focal point—resulting in care that is more affordable, preventive, personalized, and transparent.