By Jason Roys
As different types of health information technology develop, the health care IT market is booming. By 2026, it’s expected to more than double, from about $95 billion to $192.64 billion, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence, a market research firm.
What’s driving the excitement behind healthcare IT and how can you benefit from technology? This article will look at some of the most important types of health information technology and what they provide.
3 ways to look at health information systems
Healthcare information technology (HIT) is a term that refers to tools used by medical professionals, insurance companies, patients and other agencies to compile, store, share, and analyze health information. These different types of health information technology are replacing vast mountains of paper, filing cabinets, pens and pencils to handle electronic health records and personal health records through electronic prescription services, smartphone apps, patient health portals, and more. They also are helping patients become more engaged in their treatment and enabling health care organizations become more efficient.
To understand the basics of how HIT is used, it can be broken down into three broad categories: information management, patient interaction, and back-office operations.
HIT and information management
By using advanced technology, medical professionals and patients alike have better access to health information like electronic health records. Essentially, HIT allows for the following:
Collecting, integrating, and analyzing primary and secondary health care data.
Disseminating information.
Remote patient monitoring.
The ability to aggregate patient information, analyze it, and in turn, base patient treatment on the results.
Because this information is stored and shared electronically, health care providers also can correct medical errors on health records easily, instantaneously, and inexpensively. HIT also allows patients on-demand access to their personal health records.
In general, HIT strengthens health information exchanges, improving the quality, speed and cost of patient care while boosting patient satisfaction. Here are five ways HIT is changing the way medical records are handled.
EHR and EMR
An EMR, or electronic medical record, is a digital version of the paper charts typically used in a healthcare facility. It contains information such as the patient’s treatment history and allows physicians to track information over time, follow a patient’s progress along certain parameters (like blood pressure), and monitor the overall treatment of a patient.
An EHR, or electronic health record, is considered the central component of HIT. This record is, essentially, a patient’s official digital health record and is used and maintained by healthcare providers and relevant agencies. These records contain everything an EMR does, but go beyond the standard data and provide a more expansive view of a patient’s medical information and treatment. These records are designed to move with a patient, from their primary physician to specialists, hospitals, and other relevant agencies.
Because these records are often stored in the cloud, an EHR or EMR is quickly accessible by healthcare providers. There is also less risk of losing information because the patient’s medical information is stored electronically and not on paper, meaning healthcare providers won’t have to worry about lost files or paperwork.
PHR
A personal health record (PHR) is a patient’s self-maintained health record. They are like EHRs, but a PHR gives control of the included information to the patient. A PHR can also allow patients to track relevant information about their diet, exercise, and other self-monitored health indicators. In some instances, personal health records can be linked to an electronic health record to create
PACS and VNAs
A picture archiving and communication system, or PACS, uses medical imaging technology to enable healthcare providers to securely store and digitally transmit electronic images and subsequent reports. Because these systems are completely digital, it eliminates the need for manually filing said images or records and allows for their secure retrieval as needed.
These images can be stored on a vendor neutral archive, of VNA, which standardizes the formatting and makes the images widely accessible. VNAs also improve clinical and data workflows, enable access to data from different PACS, and harmonize integration of new imaging applications.
HIT and patient interaction
Patient interaction has been limited by websites and other portals that generally allowed patients to only view information, such as upcoming appointments. But with the vast improvements in HIT, patient portals allow for much, much more. Here are eight types of health information technology that improve doctor-patient interactions.
Patient portals
A patient portal serves as an access point to create self-serve health IT services for patients, meaning patients can use the portals to perform a wide variety of services, including:
Communicating securely with their physicians
Making payments
Checking whether services are covered by insurance providers
Scheduling appointments
Accessing detailed reports from recent visits
Seeing the results of lab tests
Accessing immunization records
Reading patient education materials
Ordering prescription refills
Accessing downloadable forms
Reporting symptoms
By increasing accessibility for the patient, patient portals effectively improve patient-provider communication and allow for more patient involvement, which strengthens the patient’s overall health care.
E-Prescribing software
Electronic prescribing software is used, as its name suggests, to electronically prescribe and manage patient prescriptions. Managing prescriptions electronically improves efficiency and communication and helps to avoid medication errors. For example, pharmacists no longer need to try to decipher a doctor’s handwriting.
E-prescribing can also reduce the occurrence of adverse drug events – the unintended effects of a drug. The same software that manages the basics of a prescription also checks any new medicine against the medication a patient already takes – looking for any adverse interactions and contraindications, or situations in which a drug should not be used. The system also alerts the healthcare professionals if it finds anything.
Remote patient monitoring
Remote patient monitoring allows for the use of medical sensors to transmit patient data from their homes to their healthcare facility and providers. Examples of RPM include blood-glucose and blood pressure monitoring, and virtual oversight of other chronic conditions.
A plus for patients: RPM can reduce the costs of chronic care and lower readmission rates.
Wearables
Wearables are small electronic devices that, when they come in contact with a person’s skin, help measure vital signs, including:
Temperature
Blood pressure
Blood oxygen
Breathing rate
Electrical activity of the heart, muscles, and brain
Sound
GPS location and elevation
Physical movement
Changes in direction
Some of the most common wearables are fitness trackers like Fitbit and the Apple Watch, and trackers for specific symptoms, like active blood-glucose monitors. Wearables not only help to promote healthier habits for patients, but also can help patients share vital information with their healthcare providers.
Social media and health care
As with so many other industries, health and human services have begun to use social media to engage patients and consumers. Because patients often rely on the internet to gather health care information and connect with others, it has become increasingly important for health care providers to be active on social media.
In addition to marketing and communication efforts by providers, social media also allows patients to:
Find support groups
Learn more about diagnoses
Share experiences with providers
Research and select healthcare providers, specialists and hospitals
Post reviews of their experiences
Secure messaging
One big selling point for HIT is its ability to provide secure communications between patient and provider. Communication can come in the form of emails, direct messaging, chats, and video conferencing. Developers build safety and security measures into electronic health information systems, which can reassure patients that only their healthcare providers have access to sensitive health records.
To increase security, some medical practice management software, patient portals, and other types of electronic healthcare information systems have begun implementing two-step access systems to prevent data breaches.
Mobile health apps
Mobile health apps are designed to monitor and share health information via mobile technology. Some apps are developed specifically to process the health information generated and shared by wearables. Other apps can be standalone programs that allow patients to track and monitor symptoms. Some of the most common conditions that mobile health apps help with are:
Diabetes
Pregnancy
Weight loss
Chronic illness
Mobile health apps are beginning to integrate with EHRs, giving healthcare providers the ability to provide more expansive care. An example of this is a physician using a mobile health app to communicate recovery instructions and medication reminders to a patient post-surgery.
Online tutorials
Using HIT, healthcare providers can easily connect patients with online tutorials to help them after they leave the healthcare facility doors. These tutorials can be used to advise patients on how to administer new medications, teach them how to care for themselves after surgery, suggest ways to increase quality of life or reduce the complications of a medical condition, and outline strategies for living with chronic conditions.
HIT and back-office operations
Similarly, HIT can boost the effectiveness of a healthcare facility’s back-office (or non-medical) operations. New medical practice management software helps make processes smoother while reducing the number of clerical errors or oversights. Essentially, implementing HIT in any healthcare facility can aid in the practice’s ability to seamlessly manage all aspects of its operations. Here are two more ways that HIT is changing healthcare – the 14th and 15th presented in this article.
Medical practice management systems
A medical practice management system serves a practice in four areas: scheduling, billing, storing, and reporting healthcare information. Think of it as the central hub for a facility that can manage day-to-day processes like:
Billing and payments
Follow-up communications
Collections
Insurance verification
Patient contact information
These systems can also help with more behind-the-scenes tasks. They can make a practice’s staff more efficient by helping to:
Compile and store electronic medical records
Schedule staff
Reserve specific rooms within the healthcare facility
Master patient index
A master patient index is a system that connects any given patient’s medical records with other healthcare industry databases. These indexes are primarily used by hospitals because the entirety of a patient’s data can be entered once and then stored for later use by other departments, labs, or facilities.
An MPI aims to provide more accurate data and enhanced security of electronic medical records.
Getting a handle on HIT
Because patients are increasingly engaging with IT services, it’s becoming more important for health and human services professionals to do the same. SDV International can help your facility implement effective HIT software and systems to provide improved patient treatment and satisfaction.