Emerging Wireless Technology in the Healthcare Industry - Assignment Example

?WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY Wireless Technology in the Healthcare Industry Affiliation The effective implementation and use of information technology (IT) in the healthcare sector can provide healthcare firms with excellent capabilities to improve competence improve the quality of healthcare services and minimize expenditures. In fact, this domain is presently on the cusp of extensive deployment and key innovations introduced in the US and throughout the world (Avancha, Baxi, & Kotz, 2012). The research has shown that in the past few years there have been huge investments spent on the implementations of latest information technology tools and application, which have a significant effect on the healthcare sector. In fact, these investments have caused enhanced efficiency, the implementation of new processes and high quality of services. In spite of all these developments the healthcare sector failed to take pleasure in the efficiency and improvements since the healthcare sector has always been working under inadequate resources. With the passage of time, the strategy makers, decision makers, operators, and other stakeholders realized the importance of information and communication technology, in particular wireless technology and observed a chance to deal with some of the major issues the healthcare industry is facing (Hafeez-Baig & Gururajan, 2009). This paper discusses the use of wireless technologies in healthcare sector. The paper also outlines the advantages and drawbacks of wireless technologies in the context of the healthcare sector. A large number of researches have shown that the use of wireless computing can help healthcare firms deal with some of the critical problems for instance reduction in expenditures, quality of care, reduction in errors, shortages of human resources, reduction in financial support, and high satisfaction levels among employees and customers. For instance, an electronically readable code can be assigned to a patient registering in a hospital and an employee using wireless devices can insert vital information straightforwardly into the hospital network. In the same way, wireless devices can be utilized to connect a patient's body to a variety of hospital machines and devices with the purpose of keeping records of medical data for instance heart function, blood pressure and these important features can be straightforwardly recorded, regularly monitored and assessed by healthcare professionals both within and outside the hospital (Hafeez-Baig & Gururajan, 2009). According to (Gururajan & Murugesan, 2005), in healthcare sector wireless technology is utilized as an umbrella term which involves the use of a wide range of wireless devices such as personal digital assistants, mobile and handheld computers, mobile phones, wireless computer networks pagers and mobile and wireless communications. As discussed above, in healthcare sector wireless technologies can be used for completing a wide variety of tasks. For instance, wireless technologies can be utilized by healthcare professionals to access patient data and records, to collect and store data and records of patients at the point of entry or to enter or update definite predefined data/information with the purpose of processing billing related issues (Gururajan & Murugesan, 2005). In addition, through these wireless technologies and handheld devices, healthcare professionals can perform different tests, advise medicines, and ask for additional services straightforwardly from the patient's bed. One of the most important advantages for the healthcare sector is that wireless devices can offer care as well as other connected services, anywhere, at any time, and at an affordable price, at the point of care in extremely competitive surroundings. For that reason, it can be said that the implementation and use of wireless technologies can be significant for successful survival and improvement of healthcare sector. In fact, in addition to a reduction in the need for additional hardware/operating expenditures, ability and functionality to distribute quick and secure data by making use of the wireless environment, wireless devices can allow healthcare professionals to deal with other healthcare related issues. The use and advantages of wireless technologies in healthcare sector have been discussed by a large number of researchers such as (Dyer, 2003; Sax, Kohane, & Mandl, 2005; Wisnicki, 2002). These researchers discuss the ways to improve the quality of health care services by utilizing wireless technologies (Hafeez-Baig & Gururajan, 2009; Wisnicki, 2002; Dyer, 2003; Sax, Kohane, & Mandl, 2005). Despite the reality that wireless and mobile technologies have made significant progress and the majority of healthcare firms are attracted toward these technologies, there are still a number of challenges which hinder attaining their complete potential and benefits. For instance, various aspects of mobile devices make them infeasible for their use in the healthcare sector. In this scenario, some of the limitations and restrictions for instance smaller screen size, limited memory and storage and limited power and capabilities limit the amount and quality of data that can be distributed and shared at a time. However, one of the major limitations of wireless technologies is their slow data transmission rate along with the absence of a standard exclusive connectivity mechanism that allows healthcare professionals to connect their devices with the purpose of communicating with one another and to share and exchange data and information. In addition, the implementations of wireless technologies in the healthcare sector are still in their early stages as well as slower in rate as compared to desktop computers. Moreover, some of the other issues that hinder the implementation and progress of wireless technologies in healthcare sector include high costs to originally design and develop wireless systems, lack of real-time connectivity because of the mobility of the device, modest or no support for premium graphic display and hard-to-see display and understand information (Gururajan & Murugesan, 2005). Furthermore, there are also numerous security and privacy issues associated with the wireless technologies. In order to deal with these issues healthcare organizations need to keep in mind various measures while choosing and implementing wireless technology for their firm. A healthcare firm must understand the problem area for which it wants to implement a wireless technology. The firm must spend a great deal of time to search for the potential technology that could resolve existing issues. In addition, this implementation should be planned in an organized way and significant budget and resources should be assigned to the implementation. The organization should implement strict security measures to ensure information security and privacy (Sax, Kohane, & Mandl, 2005). References Avancha, S., Baxi, A., & Kotz, D. (2012). Privacy in mobile technology for personal healthcare. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Volume 45 Issue 1 , 1-54. Dyer, O. (2003). Patient will be reminded of appointments by text messages. British Medical Journal, Volume 326 Issue 7402, p.281. Gururajan, R., & Murugesan, S. (2005). Wireless Solutions Developed for the Australian Healthcare: A Review. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB’05) (pp. 1-7). IEEE. Hafeez-Baig, A., & Gururajan, R. (2009). Exploratory study to understand the phenomena of adoption of wireless handheld devices in the Australian healthcare system. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, Volume 11 Issue 1, pp. 43-56. Sax, U., Kohane, I., & Mandl, K. (2005). Wireless technology infrastructures for authentication of patients: PKI that rings. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Volume 12 Issue 3, pp. 263-268. Wisnicki, J. (2002). Wireless networking transforms healthcare: physician's practices better able to handle workflow, increase productivity (the human connection). Ophthalmology Times, Volume 27 Issue 21, pp. 38-41. Read More