Information technology is a popular tool in almost every sphere of activity, including health services. Modern methods help to improve the quality of services provided to patients, detect disease in a timely manner and prescribe competent treatment. Information technology in medicine is a data processing and management technique.
Information technology in health service
The introduction of these technologies into the field of medicine was not long ago, but already people appreciate it for its efficiency. The first step in this process was the digitization of information. Data from medical records and current assignments are fed into the computer and made available to all involved persons.
The use of information technology in medicine is the best aid for timely analysis and structuring of knowledge. These techniques assist professionals in the process of finding cause-effect relationships, such as ones between destination and nature of the disease.
In the health care system, several information technologies are particularly popular:
- teleconsultations;
- regulation of medical interventions;
- remote transmission of patient status information.
Telemedicine has two branches. One involves consulting one physician with another, while the other makes it easier for the physician to interact with the patient. The application of information technology in medicine enables workers to arrange remote visits of patients. Telemedicine is a set of therapeutic diagnostic techniques that make possible remote information management.
Modern diagnostic equipment has become a very popular tool in health care. In dentistry, it’s a digital X-ray. This tool allows the physician to study the tooth image in more detail. As a consequence, a specialist can reduce or enlarge an image and save information to a database.
Electronic medical databases allow employees to store all information in one storage. Several goals are realized as a result of this:
- obtaining a set of parameters to determine the optimal treatment scheme;
- quick filling-in of the form with information about the patient;
- acceleration of the procedure for transmission of analysis results;
- formation of individual assignments.
Due to informatization, the patient’s information will be perfectly safe at all times, as will medical records. Special software allows professionals to quickly share patient information.
Modern information technology is also an active tool in the process of surgery. Specialized equipment enables doctors to monitor the patient’s condition, including during operations.