Healthcare Technology

Compared to other industries Heatlhcare is in the stone age when it comes to Information Technology (IT). However, with President Bush's call for the creation of a nationwide electronic health records system within the next 10 years, healthcare information technology (HIT) is now at the forefront of the minds of many healthcare IT professionals.

The core idea behind the an electronic healthcare system is that doctors in one state, treating an emergency room patient visiting from another state, should be able to access that patient's records on a nation-wide healthcare technology system. In this way, the patient will be better protected, the doctors will be able to treat the patient quicker and more effectively (cutting down on errors), and the nation will save on healthcare spending. Regional Healthcare Information Organizations (RHIOs) have recently pushed ahead with President Bush's call for Healthcare Information Technology initiatives, but unfortunately, many healthcare providers have been slow to accept electronic versions of patient records - partly because American physicians have not computerized their clinical activity.

While there has been a rise in Patient-owned PHRs (Patient Health Records) by companies such as Laxor and CapMed, this is just an intermediary step on the road to EHRs, and has already sparked privacy concerns associated with healthcare technology. The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS), a public advisory body to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently called on the federal government to take a closer look at security practices stemming from healthcare IT.

FierceHealthcare covers Healthcare technology from all angles and keeps healthcare administrators and managers up to date on electronic medical records (EMRs), electronic prescriptions, hospital quality comparison tools (such as WebMD's Healthshare Technology), healthcare informatics, healthcare IT spending, and general healthcare technology news.

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