Discussion Board 2

Business and industry often respond quickly to new technology directions and rapidly align their technology systems to support the overall strategy of the organization. Interestingly, we often see health care lag in terms of development of internal information technology systems, even when they obtain and implement that latest in medical technology devices and equipment. 1 Do you believe that health care tends to ride behind the information system technology curve? 2 If so, what do you believe is the underlying cause for the lag? Give examples. Module 2 Background SYSTEM DESIGN AND CONSIDERATIONS The integration and development of information and communication systems in different fields of medicine is a challenging task. This is largely because he integration and development of information and communication systems amongst different fields of medicine are often disparate. However, these challenges can be overcome through careful evaluation of the diverse data needs; ensuring standards based conformance and interoperability; and adhering common best design practices for various systems and healthcare disciplines. Common themes to these design practices include: Electronic health record (EHR) management – every medical information system has to have either its own implementation or a functional interface to the EHR management system. Security and data confidentiality – the system has to ensure that every piece of information is transferred, stored and retrieved in a secure manner. This includes procedures like access control and obligatory authorization at all levels in the healthcare computing environment. Additionally, the system has to respect the patient’s legal right to privacy, by preserving ethical and legal policies required by the national regulations. Integration with other medical systems – a common goal for design of computer based communication systems in medicine is to achieve a single global information system; one that integrates all levels of medical care independent of the current location of either a patient or a care provider. With that in mind, the system has to be able to communicate with other systems of interest; hence, the need for each systems to utilize important medical communication standards such as DICOM or HL7. The desired outcome for a next generation network is one common network platform for transferring and serving different types of information, services and media. The intent is to handle different media types and to use different services at the same time, and within possible selections of well-defined Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. The concept of separate fixed and mobile network is also changing. Although it is assumed that a user is mobile within the system, and should be able to use all the provided services in a personalized and user-friendly way, the services emerging services for next generation networks will tend to be inherently transparent. They will assume IP based transfer protocol, which will become lesser dependant on the user’s current position and terminal.* Other important aspect to consider when designing systems are the actual data needs for each care provider, in addition to requirements surrounding overall workflows and information exchange processes. These must be carefully examined, both within and between various departments and providers to ensure efficient and orderly input, flow and distribution of information and tasks. *Koncar, M. and Locnaric, S. "Concepts for integrated electronic health records management system" Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Unska 3, Croatia (2003)