The Healthcare sector has seen far advancement in terms of medication and technology. With continuous research and evolution, healthcare professionals have adopted the most effective and advanced treatment methods and tools to provide the best possible patient care. Health Information Technology (HIT) has gained importance in recent years due to the data and information that is generated through it. This data helps to provide meaningful and valuable insights about the patient’s condition and also to analyze the disease in depth for better medication.
From electronic health records (EHR) to medicine delivery technology is used in all the processes that make easy access to people and hence in turn generates data that is very useful for healthcare providers. Here in this article, we provide insights related to health information technology (HIT) and how it is impactful in providing improved patient care.
What is Health Information Technology?
Health Information Technology (HIT) is the process of using information related to the health sector, by professionals for various purposes to improve and enhance medical care. This technology process includes the storage, analysis, and exchange of healthcare data to electrical or digital devices. This is the most effective way to improve healthcare services, reduce medical errors, cost-effective healthcare, and many more. Along with the patient focus it is also beneficial in the administrative system.
HIT is a vast concept that includes types and applications like telehealth, eHealth, mHealth, EHR and EMR, remote patient monitoring, PHR (personal health records), wearables, and so on. These all are the electronic and technological devices or processes that will generate a large amount of data which when studied will provide meaningful insights.
Personal health records: These refer to a digital record that is related to the healthcare information of an individual patient. Through one can see doctor visits, clinical reports, medications, vaccinations, laboratory tests, etc. This will help you in monitoring and maintaining your health and hence achieve your health goals.
E-prescribing or electronic prescribing: It is the way to maintain your prescriptions in digital format. This is a safer way to maintain medicine prescriptions as it avoids the chances of losing drug names. It also reduces paper-work, another useful feature is that it automatically sends the order to a medical shop to ensure the availability and thus you do not miss the course.
EHR: this is helpful for doctors in keeping track of patients’ health conditions and if any critical issues occur can monitor you immediately. Apart from monitoring it is also used in sharing information with specialists for suggestions and higher medical assistance. With this digitalized information storage treatment process will be easier and more effective.
HIT impact on patient care
Medication and healthcare can be beneficial and better only with proper patient engagement, technology has made it easier and more convenient through online and healthcare apps. They act as an effective medium in providing the best healthcare delivery by foresting the engagement of patients to their regular checkups and medications. With the availability of wearables and patent portals, one can get easy access to their reports and health information which is also beneficial for doctors in decision-making and better treatment plans for faster recovery of patients.
In some cases, it reduces unnecessary tasks like repeat tests and scanning which saves both time and money. With the availability of medical history, the analysis becomes easier, and with the use of EHR, you need not note down the facts and information repeatedly. The applications of HIT are widely used in Digital Twin Technology to make virtual models of organs or even the whole individual.
Conclusion
HIT is most beneficial for both patients and doctors in many aspects. The major challenge in adopting this technology is the issue of privacy and security of data. It is also a major and concerned regulatory policy, in the process of providing the best healthcare delivery one must not forget the utilization of data for unethical purposes. No doubt Health IT has a remarkable contribution to patient care but the security of data is also important. From empowering patients to actively participate in their care to enabling personalized treatment approaches, healthcare technology continues to redefine the patient experience.