Hi all,
Today we live in a rapidly changing and challenging environment. Especially during the last decade, some important inventions have been made. In this blog post I would like to share my thoughts about the developments of Information Technology in the medical health sector. The main question of this blog post is the following: are IT developments in the medical health sector rather beneficial or detrimental? Since we all are Business Information Students and will get a job in IT most probably, I will focus on some dangers of IT developments. These dangers might be a wake-up-call for you.
At first, let’s sum the main IT developments of last decade. In 2011 the electronic patient file (in Dutch: EPD) has been introduced. This software application digitalized all confidential information of patients instead of saving it on a more traditional way, e.g. Excel. With this development medical institutions can share patient information easier and faster. However, I wonder in what way this application protects patients’ privacy. In 2015, 37% of all data leaks was in health care (Source: Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 2015). What does this mean for the privacy of all patients? What happens with the confidential information? There is a reason that doctor-patient confidentially has been institutionalized and the electronic patient file might endanger this privacy statement. On the other hand, due to a more efficient information system, doctors spend less time in reading and finding the right information and patients get help faster. The EPD is thus not only disadvantageous for the medical health sector but is involved with some risks that cannot be ignored.
Watch this nice video for a short summary of the EPD:
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fz74PSKpH4
Another trend in medical care is that people search for their own diagnosis more than ever before. This is due to the information overload on search engines such as Google.com. Due to this information overload on the internet, people become more critical and expect more online information. This trend gives a lot of pressure on the medical care sector because care institutions are forced to invest in online and mobile applications to give their patients the online information they need.
Lack of true insight in IT infrastructure is probably the biggest problem in the medical health sector. This is not only very risky for patients but also for the organisations’ continuity. Since IT developments in this sector are quite new, many care institutions actually don’t know how to work with IT. For example, they don’t know the risks of using a not-licensed software which could result in serious failures.
Hope I inspired you.
Kind regards,
Daan Verpalen (374199)
Sources
https://www.zorgvisie.nl/blog/top-10-it-pijnpunten-in-de-gezondheidszorg-zvs013995w/
https://www.gezondheidsnet.nl/medisch/10-vragen-over-het-medisch-beroepsgeheim
Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 2015
