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"Facilitating the flow of information within a healthcare organization is becoming a quality differentiator among healthcare providers competing in the GCC region".
Healthcare has traditionally seen lower levels of investment in IT than other service industries.
This has resulted in a number of problems for healthcare providers, with systems in desperate need of modernization to overcome the challenges that have arisen over the years - disparate mix of software systems that struggle to share information, infrastructure that hinders rather than helps expansion or growth, and programs that are not optimally aligned with clinical workflows.
"As expectations for improved healthcare continue to evolve, older IT systems will increasingly struggle to deliver a truly integrated flow of information having been designed traditionally around provider needs, rather than around a patient's needs..." said Shehadi, "... and as such, both patients and medical staff increasingly experience healthcare technology that is below expectation".
Patient-Centric IT
Recent advances in IT are enabling providers to improve the quality of patient care. Today's healthcare IT is much more than traditional isolated computers and unfriendly applications. Increasingly, patient care is exploiting the new tools and information that systems can provide, while maintaining a patient-centric approach to their use.
Software that supports the core medical processes, hardware that allows easy access to information at the point of care, and standards that make the integration of different systems easier than ever before are all key features of the new healthcare IT systems.
"With increased investment in modern IT systems as well as new facilities, organizations are improving healthcare for patients, and raising it to a world-class standard," commented Richard Shediac, Booz Allen Vice President leading the Healthcare Practice in the Middle East.
Fundamental to the success of investments in IT, however, is ensuring a holistic approach to the technology, which means understanding the strategic goals of the organization and understanding how IT, from technological and organizational perspectives, can help to achieve them.
IT Driven By Care
The driving force behind the revolution in healthcare IT is the desire for providers to offer the best possible standard of care to each patient.
This has driven the emergence, and growing sophistication of the Electronic Medical Record, (EMR).
This digital record can hold the full details of an individual's medical history, which ultimately helps to direct diagnostic and therapeutic decisions when a patient enters the healthcare system.
"Healthcare providers will only realize the benefits of the EMR once the necessary infrastructure for distributing the information within an integrated healthcare network is established," said Shehadi.
This highlights the critical connection that organizations must establish between information and information access: while the EMR on its own is a powerful tool, its combination with other networked applications ensures availability of the appropriate information; where and when needed, at the point of care.
Eman Hassan
