IBM boosts healthcare technology solutions

The seminars, to be held in the UAE, Kuwait and Jordan, are part of a drive to increase awareness of advanced healthcare technologies among clinicians in the Middle East as the region faces the challenges of providing effective, high quality healthcare services to a fast-growing population.

'The deployment of technology in healthcare will become critical for the development of the sector in our region as we go forwards,' said Samer Shaar, general manager of IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. 'Technology solutions in healthcare today use mobility, information management and the Internet to broaden the scope of the way that healthcare professionals plan, diagnose and work and have impact on every aspect of healthcare and hospital estate management.'

With analysts predicting that the automation of healthcare will a requirement rather than a differentiator, technology solutions offer the most effective way to hold and use clinical data, to interact with patients and to help develop patient communities, as well as taking a core role in processes such as clinician training, remote diagnostics and patient information. The most immediate impact of effectively deployed technology solutions in healthcare management is in the area of improved services and cost efficiencies, according to Shaar: 'Technology in the form of clinical information systems can reduce costs and errors, enhance communication between healthcare professionals and improve services to people.'

The use of patient information to build profiles, to assist in diagnostics and historical analysis is a widely recognised role of technology, but there are a number of solutions being deployed widely in healthcare environments that build new value for patients, too: Internet access opens secure access to patient data for healthcare workers and patients alike, while developing and making available healthcare content has been shown to work effectively as a community development tool for hospitals, as well as cutting down on everyday questions from patients.

'Today's healthcare solutions can integrate to create better managed, more responsive and better informed healthcare professionals as well as build awareness, interaction and benefit for patients,' said Shaar. 'With this roadshow, we're taking those ideas and concepts out to our regional healthcare providers and showing them just how much can be done by using information systems effectively.'

The first IBM Healthcare Technology Solutions event took place today at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai and was attended by leading healthcare professionals from the public and private sectors in the UAE.