Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has released a report detailing the top nine ways IT is transforming the health care industry, Becker’s Hospital Reviewreports (Rodak, Becker’s Hospital Review, 11/16).
The report noted that health IT has significant potential to make the U.S. health care system more patient-centered.
Nine Transformative Characteristics
According to the report, health IT can:
Identify potential mistakes and reduce medical errors;
Improve collaboration among health care providers through the use of digitized health information;
Ensure seamless transitions for patients who change care settings;
Enable faster emergency care via mobile technologies that allow physicians to obtain real-time information on a patient’s condition;
Provide patients and their families with greater access to medical information and empower them to become educated advocates for their own care;
Make care more convenient for patients through tools such as online appointment scheduling, telehealth, remote monitoring and mobile technology;
Improve care for military service members by providing medics with immediate access to medical records;
Enhance the response to public health emergencies and disasters; and
Facilitate new medical breakthroughs and provide a platform for innovation (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 11/16).
