Transcript Component 1: Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the

Component 1: Introduction to Health
Care and Public Health in the U.S.
1.1: Unit 1: Introduction to modern
healthcare in the US
1.1 d: The role of technology in
healthcare delivery
Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Clinical medicine
• The Electronic Health Record (EHR) has
significant advantages over paper records:
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Remote access to patient data
Record is legible
Confidentiality is better handled than paper records
Improves patient safety
Integration with other resources and data
Integration with decision support and knowledge-base
resources
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Health IT Workforce Curriculum
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Clinical medicine
• Some disadvantages of EHRs:
– Cost of installation, maintenance and
upgrading
– Requires training and changes in clinical
workflows
– Lack of interoperability
– Depersonalizes the doctor-patient relationship
• Advantages outweigh disadvantages?
Component 1 / Unit 1
Health IT Workforce Curriculum
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Clinical medicine
• Personal Health Records
• Patients keep their own records - idea has been around
since the 1980s
– One study gave patients their records to read when in the
waiting room
– Patients reacted positively
– Older patients tended to avoid reading their notes
– A few inaccuracies and unpleasant reactions but overall, not
many problems
• Advantages
– Tailored information
– Cost (for patient and physician!)
Component 1 / Unit 1
Health IT Workforce Curriculum
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Clinical medicine
• Some concerns about PHRs
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Significant privacy concerns
Who owns the data?
Patient grants access – to whom?
Will physicians accept access to patient information
on a “need to know” basis?
– What does the patient do if their PHR is sold to a
different entity, becomes insolvent, or ceases to exist?
– Will PHRs be sponsored by advertising?
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Clinical medicine
• Technology in the medical office
• billing software
• insurance claims processing
• accounting
• Computer assisted surgery
• CAD/CAM technology in medicine
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Telemedicine
• Telemedicine – remote delivery of
healthcare using telecommunications and
teleconferencing equipment
• Very useful where interpretation of images
/ visual data is required
• Teleradiology
• Teledermatology
• Can link doctors and patients remotely
• Remote patient monitoring
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Pharmacy
• Safety improvement in drug dispensing –
barcodes
– Bar code systems can verify the patient, the medication, and the
dosage
– In 2006 the FDA mandated that hospitals use bar codes for
administering medications
• Clinical decision support
– Reminders and alerts
– Checks for drug-drug interactions
– Reviews orders, scans for inconsistencies
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Dentistry
• Electronic dental record
– Similar advantages to the practice of dentistry
as EMRs have to the practice of medicine
• Computer modeling and CAD/CAM
• Technology aids dental diagnosis, for
example
– Imaging
– Use of electrical conductance properties to
diagnose cavities
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Health IT Workforce Curriculum
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Radiology
• Advances in imaging techniques have led to incremental
degrees of sophistication
– For example, X rays were first developed in 1895
– As technology advanced, this led to computerized tomography
(CAT or CT scans)–a computer processes multiple axial 2dimensional X-ray images and generates a 3-dimensional image
• Other technology driven radiologic imaging methods
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Ultrasound
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs)
Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans)
Radionuclide imaging techniques
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation medicine: a branch of medicine
which aims to enhance and restore functional
ability and quality of life to those with physical
impairments or disabilities.
• Examples of assistive technology
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Audio books and text-to-speech
voice recognition software
Prosthetics
Wheelchairs and ambulatory devices
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Health IT Workforce Curriculum
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Role of technology in healthcare
delivery: Healthcare education
• Expert systems help in developing
diagnostic reasoning skills
• Online resources provide a readily
available knowledge base that can be
accessed on-demand
• Simulation technology helps in training
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END OF UNIT 1