Impact of information technology in the world of health

Extract

[...] One might think that since reliable information is available on the internet, they need not seek doctors and hospitals in case of necessity. But the meeting with Dr. FJ, plastic surgeon from Lyon, suggests the contrary. Patients are increasingly worried about the amount of information that is contradictory. It only makes them restless instead of reassuring them. Economic Impacts: The direct economic impacts of Internet development are rather weak for hospitals. Certainly, more and more letters are replaced by emails, but the flow of information continues to be in the form of brochures, magazines, mail. [...]

[...] The Future The shared medical records The shared medical record seems to be the future of information technology in the medical world. Medical records of each person will be in this database. These records will not be limited to physicians alone, but hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies will have access to it as well. What are the expected impacts of the implementation of shared medical records? Are the goals realistic? Economic impacts and policy: By implementing this system, the government hopes to reduce unnecessary expenditure. [...]

[...] ) is well understood by the patient. Many times, it is quite possible that a patient can misunderstand the message. In trying to save time, one runs the risk of losing a few important things like: Patient reminder to verify the information and the doctor repeating his advice to make sure everything was correctly understood by the patient. Human and Social impacts Telemedicine has little impact on staffing levels in hospitals. Indeed, the actors remain the same, even if separated by distance. [...]

[...] The relationship of trust between the doctor and the patient, crumbles Human and social impacts: The Internet is a medium of information and communication in addition to others, but does not replace them entirely. However, it is true that certain types of intermediary service providers have emerged, one called "info-mediaries. These data structures act as intermediaries in the health field. They offer comments on medical news, information on medical equipment, books, discussion forums between practitioners etc to professionals. For the public, it includes information on diseases, guidance to the professionals, etc. [...]

[...] Human and social impacts: The concept of shared medical records based on the use of an intermediary computer to transmit information (even making appointments) means that the work being done by the telephone operators, nurses, and the doctors themselves will, in future, be done by a machine. While this will ease the work of nurses who are currently overloaded, there may still be the fear of elimination of some jobs. Cultural and societal impacts: People will have to learn to cooperate, share with each other and also to trust each other for the proper functioning of this system. [...]