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Although healthcare in the United States is an advanced industry in technique, research and development, and new equipment technology, it has slipped off the map in the realm of Informatics. We have delayed (intentionally or not) the process of upgrading information systems within hospitals, clinics, and other patient care facilities. Granted government funds are on the stack of files in each clinic, hospital, health insurance group, and critical care facility. In many cases, the only reason why the upgrade has not yet taken place is because of a director’s lack of awareness of the available technology.

Salvation Lies Within the Technology

As fresh technology becomes available by the minute, it is the duty of the facility to offer the highest level of service to the insured (or wealthy) patient, whether upgrading the entire Electronic Medical Records management system or fixing a bug within the code of the Drug Database Application on a physician’s iPhone . Sure, migrating from a system that has been in place since the 1970’s can seem like a daunting task, but it is a task that should be recognized with a sense of relief, not with a feeling of terror.

Imagine the Possibilities

Very soon we could be viewing a 3D version of our own broken bone from our post atop the paper covered examination bed, watching as the image is displayed in free space by a state of the art projector. The physician could demonstrate the severity of the injury by rotating and magnifying the image in front of our wincing expression, using nothing but a small fingertip device. The source of the image is streaming from his other hand, a pen-sized scanner that replaces the all-but-extinct X-Ray machine. It eliminates the need to don the sexy apron of lead and pose in the position that the radiologist believes is the most uncomfortable for our extreme close-up.

The Political Will to Improve Healthcare Informatics

It would be idealistic of us to assume that the doctor’s office will become this playground of technology wizardry anytime soon. Yet, with Barrack Obama’s pledge to improve the citizens’ quality of life by way of upgrading the infrastructure, technology, and healthcare sectors of our nation, we as Americans should expect big changes. We can hope to bring our national healthcare ranking up a bit from the echelon of mediocrity… the level where we’re currently situated given the amount of spending per capita.

CIO’s Should Sieze the Opportunity

It has been a slow process up to this point but, with government assistance, the CIO should be snatching grant money before it disappears and spending it on the technology that will make treatments more effective, save facilities boatloads of money, and reduce the threat of ridiculous malpractice cases resulting from sue-happy patients riding the coat tails attorneys like it’s a winning Powerball ticket.

Let’s not bite off more than we can chew…The first step toward the inevitable automated patient treatment technology is getting all of our information (i.e. allergies, past surgeries, current symptoms, mother’s maiden name) into the EMR database.  Although there is not yet just one database for everyone to upload information, each hospital should move toward its own record of patients in electronic form that can be accessed by other hospitals, insurance payers, malpractice inquirers, and maybe even the patient undergoing treatment! The technology is here, the support of the President and the government is here ($10 billion investment per year for the next 5 years), and the desire to advance our Healthcare Informatics infrastructure is right around the corner.

image by john-norris

Tags: Barack Obama, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, Healthcare Informatics

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