Achieving Clinical and Operational Excellence: How to Establish Healthcare Service Line Costs
Monday, 11 July 2011
Not knowing the clear direction that the healthcare reform initiatives will take over the next several years, healthcare organizations remain under intense pressure to reduce costs and repair inefficiencies. Most organizations understand that to successfully execute, they have to manage cost and key performance measurements across business lines. Yet, few are able to attain this.
Telemedicine: An Essential Technology for Performed Healthcare
Tuesday, 05 July 2011
Healthcare reform in dozens of countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Chile, Canada, Taiwan, China and the United States, is generating dramatically new approaches to care delivery. Although the details and the level of maturity of the efforts differ across countries, the overall trends are universal: they reflect the need to contain costs while improving access and care quality, to overcome a shortage of providers, and to take care of a growing sicker and ageing population.
Answering the Health ICT Challenge: An Optimized Infrastructure
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
The number one challenge facing healthcare providers and public health and social services agencies is delivering higher quality care to more patients and citizens at a lower cost. A major obstacle is that the diverse players in the health ecosystem traditionally run their own applications in silos, with no interconnection among these applications. The result: no integrated view of how patient care and citizen health information is delivered across the health ecosystem.
Introducing eHealthcare Patient Management Without Walls
Monday, 23 May 2011
The healthcare ecosystem is changing. The confluence of several critical factors is necessitating a comprehensive re-evaluation of healthcare systems and the delivery of care. Established healthcare systems in developed countries will need to adjust to address the predicted chronic disease epidemics and the demands of an aging population. In developing systems, healthcare modernization is a priority as we witness a rising prevalence of 'Western' diseases.
Successful Strategies for Healthcare Security & Privacy
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Improving the quality and reducing the cost of patient care depends on digitizing healthcare workflows and moving to electronic patient records. These records are a type of sensitive information, also referred to as electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI). Sensitive information in electronic form presents new vulnerabilities compared to paper-based equivalents.
Social media has moved beyond being a tool for young individuals to share their private lives (pictures, messages) to fostering serious discussion on technology and business. Increasingly driven by regulatory pressures, the need "get it right the first time" and minimize costs remains a concern in the healthcare industry. Customer feedback to improve business has thus become very important.
eHealth is a relatively recent healthcare practice that leverages electronic processes and communication to manage healthcare information. eHealth involves simplifying processes related to information, communication and transactions within and between healthcare institutions and professionals by utilizing information and telecommunications technologies.
The health sector holds an important place in our societies, as evidenced by funds appropriated to it, the role the state plays, and the large number of associated parties with various functions that it connects. Because medical advances have resulted in increased life expectancies, and because citizens are being actively encouraged to take personal responsibility for their health, the number of people in need of medical care has increased.
Universal Health Identifiers: Issues and Requirements for Successful Patient Information Exchange
Monday, 15 November 2010
Lorraine Fernandes, RHIA
Scott Schumacher, PhD
The healthcare industry is moving toward a future where the electronic exchange of health data will be commonplace. As we enter this new world, there is an increased need to accurately identify an individual across jurisdictions or care-settings so that healthcare providers have a solid foundation for sharing patient health information and providing safer, more cost effective treatment.
The Emergence of Personal Health Systems: Designing Technology for Patients and Clinicians
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
The ability to monitor patients from a distance, using electronic devices to record and send measurements of patients' vital signs, has been a mainstay in the use of medical technology for years. But the needs and expectations of patients with chronic conditions and of healthcare professionals who care for those patients have changed considerably since remote patient monitoring devices were first introduced.
Thoughts, comments, news, and reflections about healthcare IT from Microsoft's worldwide health senior director Bill Crounse, MD, on how information technology can improve healthcare delivery and services around the world.
Not knowing the clear direction that the healthcare reform initiatives will take over the next several years, healthcare organizations remain under intense pressure to reduce costs and repair inefficiencies. Most organizations understand that to successfully execute, they have to manage cost and key performance measurements across business lines. Yet, few are able to attain this.
Healthcare reform in dozens of countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Chile, Canada, Taiwan, China and the United States, is generating dramatically new approaches to care delivery. Although the details and the level of maturity of the efforts differ across countries, the overall trends are universal: they reflect the need to contain costs while improving access and care quality, to overcome a shortage of providers, and to take care of a growing sicker and ageing population.
The number one challenge facing healthcare providers and public health and social services agencies is delivering higher quality care to more patients and citizens at a lower cost. A major obstacle is that the diverse players in the health ecosystem traditionally run their own applications in silos, with no interconnection among these applications. The result: no integrated view of how patient care and citizen health information is delivered across the health ecosystem.
The healthcare ecosystem is changing. The confluence of several critical factors is necessitating a comprehensive re-evaluation of healthcare systems and the delivery of care. Established healthcare systems in developed countries will need to adjust to address the predicted chronic disease epidemics and the demands of an aging population. In developing systems, healthcare modernization is a priority as we witness a rising prevalence of 'Western' diseases.
Improving the quality and reducing the cost of patient care depends on digitizing healthcare workflows and moving to electronic patient records. These records are a type of sensitive information, also referred to as electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI). Sensitive information in electronic form presents new vulnerabilities compared to paper-based equivalents.
Social media has moved beyond being a tool for young individuals to share their private lives (pictures, messages) to fostering serious discussion on technology and business. Increasingly driven by regulatory pressures, the need "get it right the first time" and minimize costs remains a concern in the healthcare industry. Customer feedback to improve business has thus become very important.
eHealth is a relatively recent healthcare practice that leverages electronic processes and communication to manage healthcare information. eHealth involves simplifying processes related to information, communication and transactions within and between healthcare institutions and professionals by utilizing information and telecommunications technologies.
The health sector holds an important place in our societies, as evidenced by funds appropriated to it, the role the state plays, and the large number of associated parties with various functions that it connects. Because medical advances have resulted in increased life expectancies, and because citizens are being actively encouraged to take personal responsibility for their health, the number of people in need of medical care has increased.
Lorraine Fernandes, RHIA
The ability to monitor patients from a distance, using electronic devices to record and send measurements of patients' vital signs, has been a mainstay in the use of medical technology for years. But the needs and expectations of patients with chronic conditions and of healthcare professionals who care for those patients have changed considerably since remote patient monitoring devices were first introduced.
