BIT320 Remix — healthcare

December 1, 2005

healthcare IT follow-up

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For anyone who’s interested, here’s a follow-up to my post on IT in the healthcare industry. I received a comment from a healthcare/IT professional who is actually devoted to working on this issue:

Your points are well taken and folks like me are trying to solve the problem but the issues are immense and there are some huge hurdles to overcome. If you’re interested in learning more check out the health IT launch page known as HITSphere (http://www.hitsphere.com) and my health IT blog called The Healthcare IT Guy (http://www.healthcareguy.com).
I checked out his blog and the launch page, which is a network of similar blogs. It’s great to know that so many people are concerned and working on this issue.

In jb's blog, 12/01/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

The Healthcare IT Guy

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blog by a healthcare/IT professional devoted to healthcare IT news and views

In del.icio.us/jbartko, 12/01/2005 | Original | Archive

HITSphere Health IT Blogs

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a network of blogs devoted to IT and the healthcare industry

In del.icio.us/jbartko, 12/01/2005 | Original | Archive

November 27, 2005

healthcare: need for IT

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Bud and I had a discussion a few weeks ago about the lack of IT in the rec sports industry. I just read this article about an almost similar problem in the healthcare industry. While IT is pretty prevalent in back-end systems like billing and admissions, it’s pretty much missing from patient records and treatment. Instead, doctors and other healthcare workers are surrounded by paperwork. This results in lost records and errors such as mis-prescribing drugs.

Unlike rec sports, I don’t think this problem can really be blamed on generations or even people at all. I think it can almost be blamed on lack of supply. There aren’t a lot of big players out there in the business of supplying IT to the healthcare industry. There aren’t a lot of companies with enough healthcare capability in addition to IT capability. GE and Siemens may be the future of this business, which is right now very fragmented with regional companies. Both GE and Siemens have IT skills and experience in medical equipment.

In addition, the cost of IT is incredibly expensive for healthcare providers. But now, the government is getting involved in pushing for IT. This is causing some activity in the supplier business. And as IT solutions continue to become cheaper, hopefully we’ll see more of it in the healthcare industry. Can you imagine the doctor typing your symptoms into a computer program and receiving recommendations for your treatment? This is called clinical decision support.20 years from now… will we even need doctors??

In jb's blog, 11/27/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

October 12, 2005

Doctors and Patients Agree: IT Good

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Adopting IT in the Healtcare Sector

In del.icio.us/mridge, 10/12/2005 | Original | Archive