#HealthInformatics Techonology HealthcareIT ArtificialIntelligence Blockchain SocialMedia MedicalInformatics

[oladesanmi-blog]

HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS’ EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION

Change is everywhere. And whether you’re talking about your hometown or your day-to-day activities, adjustment and fine-tuning is inevitable. Within the context of the organizations in the Healthcare Industry, the challenge is learning to handle change effectively and to manage change with evolution and revolution as an end goal. From this perspective, there are basically two ways to understand change: Evolutionary or incremental change and Revolutionary or transformational change. Understanding the differences and learning how to make the most of these opportunities can be a challenge, but one that ensures the industry not only survives but also thrives.

Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change

Evolutionary change is incremental and takes place gradually, over time. Slow, gradual change often takes place to ensure the survival of the organization. It’s incremental in that it happens step by step, little by little. Organizations undergoing evolutionary change may have been prompted by outside pressure, in order to keep up with technology or addressing the needs of stakeholders more effectively.

By contrast, revolutionary change is profound. When we think revolutionary change, we envision complete overhaul, renovation, and reconstruction. Change is fundamental, dramatic and often irreversible.

From an organizational perspective, revolutionary change reshapes and realigns strategic goals and often leads to radical breakthroughs in beliefs or behaviours. When an organization decides to engage in revolutionary change, radical transformations to products or services often follow. In efforts to stay ahead of the curve and reach evolution, outstanding organizations often pursue revolutionary change.

The challenge in today’s healthcare industry is not in learning how to accept change, but in how to orchestrate the most efficient change leading to organizational evolution. Staying in touch with core values, maintaining a culture of innovation and learning to make the most of resources

What is Healthcare informatics?

Healthcare Informatics is a discipline that involves the use of information technology to organize and analyze health records to improve healthcare outcomes. Health Informatics deals with the resources, devices, and methods to utilize acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and medicine. Other related areas include clinical research informatics, consumer health informatics, and public health informatics, biomedical informatics, imaging informatics, and nursing informatics.

In a nutshell, Health informatics is a specialization that links IT, communications and healthcare to improve patient care.

Why Health Informatics?

A few years ago, clinical care and documentation were all paper-based. Now, with the advent of clinical documentation that enables secure electronic sharing of patient data, healthcare providers can reduce wait times, improve inter-disciplinary collaboration, and minimize errors. Additionally, because we now have a database on every patient, we can analyze aggregated clinical data to help us to understand what is going on with larger groups of patients and identify trends in population health.

The fact that technology is rapidly transforming health care should come as no surprise to anyone. From robotic arms that perform surgery to nanorobots that deliver drugs through the bloodstream, the days of being tended to by the human country doctor seem to have fully given way to machines and software more in keeping with the tools of Dr Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy from “Star Trek.”

In a nutshell, It has come to stay!

Healthcare Industry vs. Technology Evolution and Revolution

First of all, health care isn’t just expensive; it’s wasteful. It’s estimated that half of all medical expenditures are squandered on account of repeat procedures, the expenses associated with more traditional methods of sharing information, delays in care, errors in care or delivery, and the like. With an electronic and connected system in place, much of that waste can be curbed. From lab results that reach their destination sooner improving better and more timely care delivery to reduced malpractice claims, health informatics reduces errors, increases communication, and drives efficiency where before there was costly incompetence and obstruction.

Apart from that, there’s a reason medicine is referred to as a “practice,” and it’s because health care providers are always learning more and honing their skills. Health informatics provides a way for knowledge about patients, diseases, therapies, medicines, and the like to be more easily distributed.

Also, when patients have electronic access to their own health history and recommendations, it empowers them to take their role in their own health care more seriously. Patients who have access to care portals are able to educate themselves more effectively about their diagnoses and prognoses, while also keeping better track of medications and symptoms. They are also able to interact with doctors and nurses more easily, which yields better outcomes, as well. Health informatics allows individuals to feel like they are a valuable part of their own health care team because they are.

More so, one criticism of approaching patient care through information and technology is that care is becoming less and less personal. Instead of a doctor getting to know a patient in real time and space in order to best offer care, the job of “knowing” is placed on data and algorithms.

Nevertheless, as data is gathered regarding a patient, algorithms can be used to sort it in order to determine what is wrong and what care should be offered. It remains to be seen what effects this data-driven approach will have over time, but regardless, since care is getting less personal, having a valid and accurate record that the patient and his care providers can access remains vital.  

Moreover, Health care is getting more and more specialized, which means most patients receive care from as many as a dozen different people in one hospital stay. This increase in specialists requires an increase in coordination and it's health informatics that provides the way forward. Pharmaceutical concerns, blood levels, nutrition, physical therapy, X-rays, discharge instructions. It’s astonishing how many different conversations a single patient may have with a team of people regarding care, and unless those conversations and efforts are made in tandem with one another, problems will arise and care will suffer. Health informatics makes the necessary coordination possible.  

Furthermore, the most important way in which informatics is changing health care is in improved outcomes. Electronic medical records result in higher quality care and safer care as coordinated teams provide better diagnoses and decrease the chance for errors. Doctors and nurses are able to increase efficiency, which frees up time to spend with patients, and previously manual jobs and tasks are automated, which saves time and money. Not just for hospitals, clinics, and providers, but for patients, insurance companies, local government, state and federal governments too.  

Health care is undergoing a massive renovation thanks to technology, and health informatics is helping to ensure that part of the change results in greater efficiency, coordination, and improved care.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Healthcare Informatics

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is devoted to creating computer software and hardware that imitates the human mind. The primary goal of AI technology is to make computers smarter by creating software that will allow a computer to mimic some of the functions of the human brain in selected applications. Applications of AI technology include; general problem solving, expert systems, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and education. All of these applications employ knowledge base and inference techniques to solve problems or help make decisions in specific domains.

The global artificial intelligence market is expected to reach $19.47 billion by 2022, according to the research firm Allied Market Research. As AI is marking its presence, tech giants are working to capitalize on new opportunities. The healthcare sector is a natural fit, according to Sanjay Gupta, managing director, South Asia, and the Middle East for NICE.

Time and Life Saver

Among Google’s many AI ventures is an effort to develop new products targeting the health sector. The company is focusing on applications for life preservation, preventive care and improving health care services.

The company plans to launch a trial in India to test an AI system that scans a person’s eyes to look for signs of diabetic retinopathy. The company aims to license the technology to clinics. The system already has proven itself adept at detecting high blood pressure, or risk of heart disease or stroke, according to a study published in early 2018.

Accuracy and Scalability

AI advancements could be of great help to patients with an age of 65 years or older. According to the recent study published in the journal NPJ Digital Medicine, Researchers implemented AI to screen electronic health records along with notes taken by doctors for finding potential health risks. This included nearly 48 billion data points used in a deep learning model.

The AI analyzed the data and determined medical issues such as mortality rates, unplanned readmission, and long hospital stays with an accuracy of 90 per cent. In comparison to traditional predictive analysis models, the deep learning model provided 10 per cent more accuracy and scalability. The system did not only analyze electronic records but also took into account doctors’ notes and information on old charts stores as PDF files.

Blockchain and Healthcare Industry

A Blockchain approach offers several benefits over traditional location tracking products. The most obvious of which is the immutability and tamper-proof qualities of the Blockchain. This prevents a malicious user from changing the location history of a device or deleting it from the record. This is a particularly important factor considering that medical device theft and shrinkage has

There are several areas of healthcare and well-being that could be enhanced using Blockchain technologies.

These include device tracking, clinical trials, pharmaceutical tracking, and health insurance. Within device tracking, hospitals can trace their asset within a Blockchain infrastructure, including through the complete lifecycle of a device.

The information gathered can then be used to improve patient safety and provide after-market analysis to improve efficiency savings. This paper outlines recent work within the areas of pharmaceutical traceability, data sharing, clinical trials, and device tracking.

Social Media within Healthcare Industry

Social media including Web sites like Facebook Twitter Instagram and Linked-In have become part of the fabric of modern life online communities can hardly be avoided by anyone who lives even a modestly engaged life.

There are many advantages to social media both personal and professional. Businesses have become quite sophisticated in using social media to extend their message and to present their products and services to the public. But what about professionals or people like you who are involved in the healthcare industry.

What role does social media play in your work and what restrictions our health professionals are under when it comes to using social media?

First, it's important to keep in mind that most health care providers have policies and procedures for making public announcements. If you are not an official spokesperson vested with the authority to speak on behalf of your organization, please refrain from sharing news and occurrences on social media.

Unless you've been given specific permission to do so in your organization's official branded social media accounts so you can read tweets, like, share and comment on items posted there if you choose.

Secondly, you must not underestimate the valuable role that social media can play in the medical profession. For example, trauma teams in Maiduguri were able to prepare their ears quickly after learning of the Banki town bombing over social media networks.

In conclusion, change is the key to success.

About

Oladesanmi Arigbede is a Health IT expert, an entrepreneur, a technology enthusiast who likes cutting-edge technologies. In a career spanning one decade, he has been a business owner, technical architect, startup consultant, and CTO.

References

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/writer/pratik-kirve/

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/artificial-intelligence-market

https://ai.google/

https://hitconsultant.net/2016/03/02/health-informatics-transforming-health-care/

#HealthInformatics #Techonology #HealthcareIT #ArtificialIntelligence #Blockchain #SocialMedia #MedicalInformatics