Telecommunication in the Healthcare Industry - Speech or Presentation Example

? Telecommunication in the healthcare industry Introduction People have always had the need to communicate and stay in touch. Weather it was a need to hear from loved ones, friends, business partners, and even allies, communication was and will always be a top priority for the human race. Over time, communication methods have evolved; from smoke signals and Morse code to cellular phones and email, people will find ways to hear from their friends and family even if they are separated by great distances. Our communication technology or telecommunication has helped greatly in this human need. Another area which has been evolving over the course of years and decades is the healthcare industry. Healthcare has constantly evolved with the times, from poor and dangerous practices to safer, more effective procedures. From the old days of blood letting and body humors, to CT scans and brain surgery, healthcare has come a long way, and continues to evolve in order to aid mankind in staying healthy, relieving pain, and generally living longer. The goal of this paper is to examine and assess the marriage of these two topics; telecommunications in the healthcare setting. It aims to discuss its current state, benefits and set backs, as well as to try and predict where it will be in the next 5 years. It aims to do so by laying the topic out as such: 1. What is telecommunication? 2. Telecommunication technology used in the hospital setting 3. Advantages and disadvantages of telecommunication in healthcare 4. Significance of telecommunication in the healthcare setting 5. Where will healthcare telecommunications be in 5 years What is telecommunication? Telecommunication, according to dictionary.com, is “the transmission of information. . . usually over great distances, in the form of electronic signals..”. This gives us a guide as to how to look at the technology that will be discussed in this portion of the paper. There are many forms of this technology available in the market today. The basic form of this technology is of course the telephone. There are many types of telephones that use different types of connections in order to communicate such as the regular public switch telephone network, internet protocol or IP phones, and mobile carrier phones. This is most likely the first thing that would come to mind when thinking about telecommunication, however, this is but a small part of the technology. Other examples are chat and email. These on the other hand are text-related forms of telecommunication. These provide a great way to send out information quickly if incase there is no time to spend on the phone and if details are needed to be sent over that require visual support. You can also consider fax as a form of telecommunication as you are still sending over information electronically; it’s just turned into a hard copy once it is received. One other form of telecommunication, which people normally do not think of, is the public announcement system. It still fits into our description of sending over information electronically. The great thing about telecommunications is that it is flexible, it evolves in conjunction to our needs and it improves greatly over the course of a relatively short period of time. This means that it is effective in most settings and is able to provide multiple options for connectivity. Telecommunication technology used in the hospital setting The healthcare industry has slowly grown and evolved throughout time and so have the technologies that they used. As they made an effort to solve more problems, their need to communicate, share information and collaborate also grew and changed. Gone are the days of regular landline calls and pagers. The healthcare industry now uses great technology and equipment in order to have better communication, record keeping, and collaboration. Aside from the average technology such as IP phones, email, chat, fax and the PA system, the healthcare industry also has other tools up its sleeve. One of them is video conferencing. There is one kind that is specially made for healthcare on cisco.com. It’s called Cisco TelePresence for Healthcare. It is a very advanced form of video conferencing that makes it possible for doctors to have consultations with patients that are miles away from each other, yet feel like they are in the same room. It is also possible for doctors to help each other consult and assist in surgery. Cisco also has something called the Cisco medical-grade network 2.0, which is specially designed to make a healthcare environment more effective. Another example of technology that is used by this industry is the patient monitoring system. According to turtlemeat.com, this refers to any device used to monitor a patient; some of them are designed to alert the staff if there is something wrong with the patient. This is extremely helpful if there are certain patients that are on a critical status. There have even been people who were saved by the early warning from the patient monitoring system. Another helpful technology that is quite helpful in the healthcare or hospital setting is a supplement to their phone systems, which is the phone directory and receptionist capability. This is usually done by companies that have an IP based or PRX phone system, and who receive and make lots of calls. This gives them the ability to have extensions for certain people or locations within the hospital or facility. This makes it easier to locate a certain doctor when calling the hospital, or locate a patient, given the specific room number. This also gives the hospital the ability to screen and filter the calls that they get and put priority on the important calls such as emergency related calls. Further information on this can be seen on Avaya.com. The last example of healthcare related telecommunication technology is about wireless connectivity and tablet computers. As we already know, the hospital and healthcare setting is fast paced, and has lots of equipment that need to be used, moved, transferred, or cleaned at any point in time. This makes having an internet or network connection difficult in this setting as wires become a dangerous liability. In comes the wireless connectivity option, and with it, a whole new world of opportunity has opened up for the healthcare and hospital industry. With the new found ease and comfort of wireless connectivity, many more things can be done or used, and one example of these things is the tablet computer. The tablet computer, which according to thinkprogress.org is “lighter and has a longer battery life than many laptops”. This makes it easy to take along for their rounds, or when checking on patients. Combine this with wireless connectivity and this makes it easier for doctors to upload their notes, findings and patient information directly to their data base, making their job easier and removing the needed time to transcribe their notes later. It also gives them a way to communicate with other doctors or staff within their network at any given time. Advantages and disadvantages of telecommunication in healthcare As of the moment, there is no technology that is able to answer every one of a single one of an industry’s concerts. Telecommunication is no different. Just like any technological advancement, has its own set of pro’s and con’s. The good thing about telecommunications technology is that it evolves and continues to grow in order to answer more issues in its given field. One of the advantages of telecommunication in the healthcare industry is that it makes long distance communication and information sharing easy and fast. It gives the industry its needed efficiency and versatility. Another advantage of telecommunications technology is the wide array of communication methods available to choose from. This gives the industry the ability to select an appropriate technology for their given situation. This also provides them the means to connect with each other in any manner, at any time. However, we must also discuss the disadvantages of this technology. This is in order to be aware of these disadvantages and try to either work though them or around them. One thing to think about is that since this technology is mostly dependent on a network infrastructure, the danger of hacking and data related attack is more imminent. As indicated in gettingyouconnected.com, one of the top 3 issues that large networks are faced with is security related issues, such as hackers. This makes a large network like a hospital system more prone to hacking or security threats. Another issue that the industry maybe faced with is misinterpreted information sent through electronic means. Since telecommunication, as we may notice, lacks a certain personal touch and every thing is sent electronically, this gives us a higher opportunity to misunderstand or misinterpret the information that was sent to us. This comes from the fact that not everything we say comes from our words. Yet another disadvantage of telecommunication technology is cost. This type of technology needs to be constantly updated and upgraded in order for it to function and perform at its best. This makes having this technology a costly endeavor. Add to that the maintenance cost and you have a set up that will cost quite a large amount of money. We must recognize that the technology is very helpful and has helped in the development and advancement of the healthcare industry in many ways, however, we must also recognize that it cannot be without its own set of faults and down sides. No technology is perfect but the great thing about this particular technology is that the good outweighs the bad more often than not. Significance of telecommunication in the healthcare setting Telecommunications technology has played an important role in making the healthcare industry what it is today. It has helped in making better procedures, more efficient data recording methods, better doctor-patient relationships, and even helped in shaping the growth of the industry and its vision of its self for the future. An article by hisa.org.au also tries to stress the importance of telecommunications in the industry and even goes on to say that “Telecommunications creates opportunities to address some of the most pressing needs in healthcare today…”. This statement summarizes the great effect of this advancement to the healthcare industry. As we step back and look at the industry as a whole, we see that telecommunications technology is intertwined in it in such that they are attached to each other in a much similar way that most people are attached to their mobile phones. Most people treat their mobile phones as life lines, schedulers, and means of communication, entertainment, business lines, and emergency lines. In an article by ABC news shown in abcnews.go.com, at least 40% of people surveyed cannot live without their mobile phones. Considering that we did not even feel like we needed a mobile phone a few decades ago, that is quite a large number. The relationship of telecommunications and the healthcare industry, I feel can be summarized in the same way. The healthcare industry’s growth and development was assisted by telecommunications in such a was that the industry has included it in most of its processes. So much so that it would be very difficult for the industry to work without it. Where will healthcare telecommunications be in 5 years? As previously stated, telecommunications technologies are constantly evolving, and constantly updating. This makes its exact evolution hard to predict in a years time, let alone 5. Break through developments are made often and these break thoughs are what often would influence the technology’s evolution. This was seen in the development of wireless, as well as the development of hand held devices. However, according to Cisco systems CEO John Chambers, the next big thing in the network is video. This maybe true for telecommunication in the healthcare industry as well. There maybe new developments in video conferencing, or recorded video playback, and even portable video communication. We can also consider the development of tablets and hand held communication devices to be part of the next big development. References Bradlow, H. ( August 31, 208), The Role of Telecommunications in Transforming Healthcare, hisa.org.au, September 28, 2011, http://www.hisa.org.au/system/files/u2233/Hugh_Bradlow_Telstra.pdf Current and future possibilities of Medical Informatics (2011) turtlemeat.com, September 28, 2011, http://fragments.turtlemeat.com/medical-informatics/Patient-Monitoring-systems.php Donovan, J. (August 24, 2011) A Picture Paints A Thousand Words, A Video Displays A Thousand Pictures, commscopeblogs.com, September 28, 2011, http://commscopeblogs.com/2011/08/24/a-picture-paints-a-thousand-words-a-video-displays-a-thousand-pictures/ IP Office (2011) avaya.com, September 28, 2011, http://www.avaya.com/usa/product/ip-office Telecommunications = Distance + Communications, Disadvantages of Modern Telecommunication (2011) wmms.net, September 28, 2011, http://www.wmms.net/classroom/telecommunications.htm Yglesias, M. (October 22, 2010) Tablets in hospitals, thinkprogress.org, September 28, 2011, http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/10/22/198874/tablets-in-hospitals/ Read More