KNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
E. WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS PROGRAM 

STIA 443   E-HEALTH: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND HEALTHCARE
(FALL 2002)

                       R. J. Rodrigues 

OVERVIEW OF THE SUBJECT AREA

Information systems are recognized as a critical resource in:

- Attaining the goals of improving access to equitable healthcare;

- Maintaining and accessing integrated patient information;

- Practicing evidence-based quality health interventions;

- In the provision of customized healthcare services; and

- The achievment of cost-efficient operation and management of health organizations and programs.

The variety of conditions, priorities, organization, and operational demands that characterize health practice require a great diversity of data content and formats and multiple information resources and technical solutions.

Technical solutions must provide effective and cost-justifiable support to a challenging, complex, and interdependent array of clinical, public health, and managerial decisions and interventions. Changes occurring in the healthcare sector and in the information technology industry offer an increased level of opportunities, interdependency, and risk regarding decisions and actions related to ICT solutions procurement, selection, and deployment.

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the dissemination of networked data processing are shaping a new environment characterized by widespread access to information and the globalization of communications, businesses, and services. In the health sector, this trend is exemplified by the growing consolidation of "e-Health" – an area distinguished by the extensive utilization of ICT to transmit, store and retrieve digital data for clinical, educational, administrative, and business purposes, both at the local site and at distance.

Most e-Health solutions build on e-Commerce and e-Government strategies and the extensive experience in the use of Internet-based networked technologies to rethink, redesign, and rework how businesses and public services operate. Typically, such developments have been aimed at the improvement of productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency both internally and in the relationships with clients, customers, suppliers, and partners.

Following the globalizing tendency of the last years, e-Health solutions, heretofore mostly built for industrialized countries and large organizations, are being proposed as an answer to a variety of health system management problems and healthcare demands faced by all health organizations, particularly in the operational support of the new healthcare models being implemented in many countries.