Impact of E-Health - Assignment Example

Impacts of E-Health E-Health:- E-health can be defined as the utilisation of combining electronic communication and information technology in the clinical health care management. This methodology generates, transmits, stores, and retrieves digital data for the organisation of function relating to health care. E-health makes use of the Electronic Health Record (HER) system, in which the health data of an individual is recorded and shared among different facilities and agencies for improving the quality and efficiency of care and reducing the costs. 2. ICT tool – Internet Technology has a significant impact on the health care systems.

Information and Communication Technologies, especially the internet, have made it possible for patients to assume the greater responsibility for their health care. Traditionally, physicians had greater access to information whereas the patients did not have. And now, internet has changed this dynamism into a more developed communication system which bridges all such communication gaps. The internet provides interpreted medical information directly to the patients. Likewise, the Internet changes everything in the patient-doctor relationship by changing the knowledge wised relationship from a paternalistic model to a facilitative model.

Moreover, the patients are well aware of the different procedure that they have to undergo. And if the procedures that the physicians follow are not up to their demand, they simply seek other physicians. In total, the telemedicine has been developing rapidly and making its way through the decision makers in health-care. For example, as Hailey, Roine & Ohinmaa point out, a systematic review on telemedicine assessment on the electronic database between 1966 and 2000 identified that 56% of the results showed that telemedicine had advantage over the other alternative approaches. 3. Slow take up for e-health Market fragmentation is the major hurdle preventing further and quicker development of e-health sector.

Market fragmentation is often aggravated by a lack of system interoperability at technical levels as well as semantic levels. In the same way, market disintegration results in a lack of economies for organisation that offer goods and services related to e-health. This process in turn causes higher costs for all related elements and thus puts a slow take-up of e-health. The e-health solutions could be fully exploited if only various goods and services can be put together and joined. When compared to the development of e-banking, it has not been at good pace with the time.

E-banking has been flourishing throughout the years whereas e-health was seen lagging behind the time. 4. Home Telehealth Home Telehealth, also known as Care Coordination/Home Telehealth (CCHT) can be defined as the system in which the health care provider can monitor the patient’s symptoms and important signs remotely. For old patients who are obsessed with serious health problems like diabetes, chronic heart failure or post-traumatic stress disorder getting the right treatment becomes much difficult.

In such situations, it is not easy for the older patients to frequently go to the physicians to check their symptoms and vital signs like pulse, weight, temperature, etc for preventing severe health problems from developing. Today, with the help of advanced telehealth technologies, it is possible for them to frequently check their symptoms and vital signs at home. Such home telehealth devices are user friendly for the older veterans. The Home telehealth technology connects the patient from home to a physician at the hospital using regular telephone lines.

Many home telehealth technologies are equipped with the facility of providing the patients with health care information and details about the results of the various treatments undergone. As Cady, Kelly and Finkelstein point out, home telehealth based programs like U Special Kids make use of the advantages of telehealth technologies to deal with the health care issues of children also; and with the development of home telehealth practice using advanced telecommunication technologies like videoconferencing, the health care systems have been improving throughout the recent years (173-177). 5. Impacts of e-Health A number of social, economic and technological factors have contributed to the several revolutions taken place in health care management and doctor-patient relationships.

The information Communication Technologies (ICTs), including telegraph, telephone, internet, etc. also contributes important elements to the contemporary health context. These electronic developments have stimulated a rethinking about how efficiently the health care services can be delivered. The use of ICTs together with social and economic transformations is a challenging aspect of the health care that recomposes the traditional concept of the doctor-patient relationship. In traditional concept doctor is an all-knowing specialist who evaluates and advises a passive and largely unacquainted patient.

However, with the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies the traditional system is reinforced with the modern diagnostic technologies. ICTs constitute a major role in transforming the doctor-patient relations, especially when patients gain access to health information through the internet. Such related transformations in the relationship between doctor and patient can take different forms according to their preferences. The e-Health technologies can be used not only for self-diagnosis and self-treatment, but also in reconfiguring a passive, ignorant, and compliant patient to an active, informed and questioning health consumer.

At this situation, in contrast to the traditional concept, it it’s the patient’s responsibility to make a decision about what action to take and accept the accountability for that decision. 6. Telehealth relating to aged Older people are more likely to get affected by chronic illness, and therefore are in need of frequent visits to specialist. A study on the Telemedicine across the ages reveals the significance of telemedicine among the aged. Telemedicine can assist in improving access to health care aged people in rural and remote communities.

Once the proper infrastructure is established, the achievement telemedicine depends on the administrative and clinical systems supporting it. For example, telegeriatric services were instigated in Queensland in 2005, mainly using videoconferencing (Smith & Gray). And this facility has been ideal for frail older patients in remote areas. The web-based medical decision support system may be used to carry out “online” assessment and to provide medical information sharing during video consultations (Smith & Gray).

Works Cited Cady, Rhonda., Kelly, Anne and Finkelstein, Stanly. “Home telehealth for children with special health-care needs”. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, (2008), 14: 173-177. Hailey, David., Roine, Risto & Ohinmaa, Arto. “Systematic review of evidence for the benefits of telemedicine.” Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 8(2002): 1-7. Smith, Antony C & Gray, Leonard C. “Telemedicine across the ages.” Health Care, 190.1 (January 2009): 15-19.