Showing posts with label HCIT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HCIT. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What should you ask your website hosting provider?

4:40 AM Nrip Nihalani

To put a web site online, one must go through a web coordinator or a web hosting provider. The web site designer/developer will publish his or her design to a web hosting solution according to a set of recommendations and guidelines(typically provided by the practice), and also based on the type of development language the website developer has used. 

Many website hosting providers provide resources to help their customers not only simplify the process of posting information to a web site, but even provide applications to help develop websites easily.

Almost anyone can develop and publish a website today, but not everyone can setup a professional, feature rich website and then publish it securely such that its protected against various online attacks. Some understanding is thus essential before hiring a web hosting provider. When picking a web hosting provider, it is essential to keep your individual or business objectives in thoughts. 

If it's your own personal website, you might not mind it if the web hosting provider places a banner with a 3rd party promotion on it.  However, if it's an organization site you're planning; you may not want your web hosting provider to promote other organizations on your site. Many web hosting services provide free web servers if the site owners permit to place promotions on it or they charge a small fee to keep it clear of such advertisements. If you are looking to hire a web host kept the following points in mind:

1. Find out whether the provider is providing end-to- end Managed Solutions. Most webhost alternatives provides little or no support, and simply expect you to already have someone on them to deal with your specialized needs.  A managed web hosting provider should handle support for everything which range from getting a CGI script set up, to security protection of your e-commerce site. It is worthwhile paying the extra dollars for managed hosting.

2. Find out whether the website hoster provides you with the newest protected application or simply installs the standard base applications from an old CD. The provider must provide you with the latest , most secure and up-to-date web host server applications. Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search sites actually rate your site based on the application versions you use, and can considerably reduce your page rank score if you are using older and less protected application commonly provided by some website hosts.

3. A good website hosting firm should provide professional support 24 hours a day. There is nothing more painful than having to pay for support; even more than what you have to pay for the solution. And worse if you realize that you are having a conversation with someone located at a distance who scarcely speaks your language. Most webhost alternatives are busy outsourcing their support offshore. Ideally, a fast and friendly regional professional support should be available 24 hours-a-day, 7-days a week with provision for toll-free phone support as well as online live help chat sessions.

4. A webhost organization should reveal to a client their network features and capacity. Many web coordinators are simply resellers of another organization, so when you ask them to reveal their features, you can quickly figure out if you are interacting with a middleman or an efficient organization with their own features.

5. A webhost organization should have internet demonstrations and certification of what they offer. You MUST take demonstration tours of the website host's server user interface prior to purchase.

6. Website hosting organizations should have experienced in- house staff. There is no substitution for an excellent professional team when interacting in a technically-oriented organization place and the availability of an in-house market veteran team to deal with all your needs.

7. Look for a provider with realistic prices. Often, the most improbable costs come from the smallest of alternatives managing out of a single location. In reality, using a substandard website host will not conserve your funds at all. You will end up paying a lot more due to down times, back and forth discussions and unhappy visitors.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Terminologies profiling IT usage within Healthcare

8:12 AM Nrip Nihalani

Health Telematics
Health Telematics is a composite term for health-related activities, services and systems, carried out over a distance by means of information and communications technologies, for the purposes of global health promotion, disease control, and health care, as well as education, management, and research for health.


eHealth
E-health is the combined use in the health sector of electronic communication and information technology (digital data transmitted, stored and retrieved electronically) for clinical, education and administrative purposes, both at the local site and at a distance.

mHealth
mHealth (also written as m-health or mobile health) is a term used for the practice of medicine and public health, supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers and PDAs, for health services and information. The mHealth field has emerged as a sub-segment of eHealth

Telemedicine
The delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by health care professionals using information and communications technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health care providers, all in the interest of advancing the health of individuals and their communities.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)
An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.

Personal Health Record (PHR)
An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be drawn from multiple sources while being managed, shared, and controlled by the individual.

Health Information Exchange (HIE)
Health information exchange (HIE) is the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations according to nationally recognized standards. It refers to the process of reliable and interoperable electronic health-related information sharing conducted in a manner that protects the confidentiality, privacy, and security of the information.

Integrated EHR
This refers to an EHR that is integrated with practice management software. Typical choices include purchasing a fully integrated product which performs all the functions of practice management software, or a stand-alone EHR which is compatible with an existing practice management system.

Disclaimer: The definitions have been used as is from multiple sources.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Survey Regarding Medical Websites for Doctors, Clinics and Small Hospitals

11:02 PM Nrip Nihalani

As a Doctor, what are your expectations from a Website. Apart from the basic features of a website, there are some simple tools which can go a long way to improve your website experience for your patients. Our aim is to recommend these tools , such as health calculators, video galleries, online patient history forms; customized ask the doctor queries; and Google maps which provide directions to the clinic. To understand you better we request you to help us out by filling in the following survey.

Read more »

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Medical Websites Help Small Practices Compete Against Large Hospitals

2:03 AM Nrip Nihalani

Practicing medicine in the private sector is a very tough proposition. It’s not enough simply to be a very good doctor; Its also imperative that one is known by most to be a very good doctor. It’s not enough to provide all the latest treatment options and services; Everyone must also know or be able to find out easily all the services provided at a practice/hospital.

Traditional Healthcare Communication Meant Word-Of-Mouth Publicity

Traditionally, physicians and medical practices have relied on word-of-mouth publicity to establish themselves. A patient who has undergone an event-free angiography at the local cardiac care center would then tell five others about his/her wonderful experience.And now five more people know about the latest angiography services at that cardiac center. Hopefully, this positive review would continue in a geometric progression and more and more people would visit the medical center. 

But is that enough? Also, what about the high tech cardiac catheterization and latest stenting services also available at that center? There would be hundreds of bits of positive details about your practice most patients would’nt even get to know of. Hoping that all visitors to a medical center realize all its plus points and then remember to pass these plus points to others is so optimistic, it’s foolish. Thus word-of-mouth publicity serves a very limited role in evangelizing any healthcare services.

Challenges In Healthcare Communication

Medical practices can no longer rely only on word-of-mouth to inform the world about their existence. But they also face a big handicap. They need to make themselves and their quality services known without resorting to overt advertising. Clinics and smaller hospitals face a specially forbidding challenge in breaking through this glass ceiling of ‘perceived quality’. Sheer size has allowed larger hospitals to carry an aura of quality, irrespective of the services they provide. In contrast, many clinics which provide top-of-the-line services are just not accorded due respect or simply remain unknown.

Medical Websites In Healthcare Communication

Despite providing the best services, many small practices are labeled ‘poor quality’ simply because of low visibility. Technology has broken down this artificial divide between small and larger medical practices. A high quality website has become the single most important way to establish your credibility, authority and niche online. Websites and social media channels provide an easy to access free platform for showcasing your expertise to any targeted/ segmented population.

A website becomes the way people remember and recall your clinic. A website creates a visual brand for your medical practice, allowing strong recall value even among people who may never have visited your clinic. With the help of a high quality medical website, a niche specialty clinic can achieve the same recognition as many large super-specialty hospitals.

Beyond branding, the practical utilities medical practices can provide the patients via their websites are plenty. Appointment scheduling and lab reports can easily be accessed via medical websites. Interactive patient communication widgets and electronic health records can add an entirely new dimension to the concept of medical websites.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Cloud Computing in Healthcare

5:16 PM Nrip Nihalani

This article aims to discuss aspects of cloud computing that are relevant to the healthcare industry and can be applied by doctors to improve their practice.

What Should Doctors Know About Cloud Computing?

There is a sea of information available on the internet about cloud computing and how it works. As a doctor with limited interest in information technology, understanding all that jargon (most of which may not even be directly related to your work and computing requirements) can be quite intimidating and time consuming.

Simply put, the cloud is a set of hardware, networks, storage, services and interfaces that are equipped to provide computing power, infrastructure, applications, software, business processes and storage – in short, all your computing needs, as a service wherever and whenever you need it.

Migrating to the cloud 'can' help you reduce cost, space, time and power that would otherwise be utilized for traditional IT services performing the same functions. This is possible because the cloud puts together a large pool of computing resources available to be used as an assured service by anyone who wishes to use it, anywhere in the world. Traditional IT environments on the other hand, have a limited set of resources that are independently managed and delivered to a limited number of people confined to a certain geographic location, thus pushing cost, time, space and power factors.

Using Cloud Computing To Improve Your Practice

Cloud computing can transform the way healthcare is practiced by empowering professionals to deliver better care at lower costs. Cloud computing allows doctors, researchers and scientists across the globe to collaborate and form a centralized, integrated and regularly updated medical database that can be seamlessly accessed by healthcare professionals without having to invest in over-the-top infrastructure or software. Doctors can use the cloud for viewing reports, scans, EMRs, prescriptions and information required to solve complex medical problems anywhere in the world.

Patients’ health data and EMRs can be combined to form a single, comprehensive health record that can be instantly accessed from one single source. The cloud also brings together patient information like insurance claims, prescription and drug details, lab reports, patient history and progress in cases of chronic illnesses and other details and consolidates them to be available at the point of care whenever required.

This not only helps improve the level of accuracy with which care is delivered but also reduces the time and cost of treatment for physicians and patients alike. As all data is sourced from a single, homogenous center, it also brings down the possibility of conflicting treatments, prescriptions and medical data miscommunication in cases where multiple physicians and providers are involved.

Cloud computing is typically subscription based. In many cases, it works on a metered billing model of payment where you pay only for what you use. It also allows for flexible self-service by which you can enable and disable the provision of required services depending on your usage and needs.

Cloud computing users need not invest in heavy capital expenditure on hardware, software, and services. As resources can be unsubscribed whenever required, the risk of investment is considerably reduced. The cloud also addresses increased data storage needs of physicians without having them spend on expensive personal storage devices. Software updates and innovation are centrally managed by cloud service providers, helping doctors focus the best part of their day on patient care.

Cloud computing can thus help physicians meet meaningful use criteria as it demonstrates better quality of care, lower costs and higher insurance/government reimbursements.

Popular Cloud Services

Most of us have “been on the cloud” without even knowing about it (eg: Facebook is an example of a public cloud). Depending on the visibility of data there are three types of cloud platforms: Public, private and hybrid (a combination of public and private).

A more popular classification is based on the services offered:


1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offers hardware related services like disk storage, database or virtual servers. Amazon Web Services (AWS),Rackspace Cloud Servers and Flexiscale are popular IaaS providers.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers development platforms. Google’s Application Engine, Microsofts Azure, Salesforce.com’s force.com are well-knows in this category.

3. Software as service (SaaS) involves software services on the cloud like web based software applications, email services and so on. Popular examples of SaaS services are Salesforce.com (CRM), Google’s Gmail, Google Apps, Dropbox, Zoho, QuickBooks, Piwik, Microsoft Hotmail and their online version of office called BPOS (Business Productivity Online Standard Suite).

A good read on top cloud platforms at http://www.liventerprise.com/news/3608/.

Cloud Security

Cloud security and data ownership is a major concern for users and new adopters of cloud computing. As there is very little regulation currently pertaining to cloud computing, there are many data privacy and security issues to be dealt with. New users must be informed about details on who owns the data, third parties that may gain access to the data and the jurisdiction of the contract. We will look at Cloud Security in detail via a separate article.

References:



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Why IT Companies Are Important For Doctors?

2:46 AM Nrip Nihalani

Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) has the potential to transform global healthcare systems ensuring safer and more effective treatments while increasing the productivity, profitability and efficiency of practices. IT companies have integrated path breaking medical research with ingenious information technology, giving us medical tools, data systems, applications and devices that can change the way healthcare is practiced. Not only has it enabled doctors to connect with patients and other doctors in different parts of the world, HIT makes it possible for them to access a global database of precious medical information. 

Healthcare Information Technology promises to help doctors save money, attend to larger number of patients as well as allow them to implement a patient-centric model of care. The biggest breakthrough that Healthcare IT companies have made so far is the centralization and digitization of patient medical records, popularly known as the Electronic Medical Record or EMR, that has already begun to single handedly revolutionize healthcare as we have known it through the ages.

Benefits of Healthcare IT
 
The adoption of EMRs, contrary to what is popularly perceived, is as beneficial to doctors if not more, as it is to their patients. Since EMRs allow for the creation of one, single interaccesible national medical data system, medical records can be transferred anywhere in the country to help doctors provide effective, accurate and rapid treatment wherever required. So far, with paper based record systems, quick digital record transfers have been impossible, resulting in many unfortunate treatment errors and failures. 

However, IT companies have made it possible for doctors to improve the quality and safety of healthcare with the introduction of the EMR and other such revolutionizing healthcare tools. This has also significantly reduced the enormous assemblage of paperwork that has characterized physician offices and clinics all these years and has given doctors easier and faster access to information. Health insurance policy records and information are also easily retrievable from medical databases, saving practitioners hours of cumbersome and time consuming search work. 

Adoption of HIT has enabled doctors to optimize the cost of treatment and pass the same onto patients due to higher productivity and efficiency levels achieved in their practice. Features such as Computerized Physician Order Entry or CPOE, bar-code scanners and digital decision management systems increase the accuracy levels of administrative processes and treatments by introducing seamless, methodical practice management techniques. 

IT companies have empowered doctors to improve their practice on several fronts like,
 - Patient safety
 - Improved quality of care
 - Error free, accurate treatments
 - Higher doctor and staff productivity
 - Greater and faster access to patient information and medical research
 - Enhanced revenue
 - Lowered costs
 - Paperless offices and clutterfree working conditions
 - Efficient practice management systems

Doctors and Medical Networking
 
The Internet and social networking websites have made it possible for doctors to influence a whole medical community and establish themselves as thought leaders in their field. It has also enabled them to interface with a global clientele through video and web consulting tools, online medical diagnosis, web-based symptom analysis, and other mobile platforms that connect them to patients in remote locations. Doctors can join specialized medical social networks where they can exchange and discuss valuable ideas, diagnoses, complex cases and medical information with other dignitaries in their field. Real time industry news is easily available on such sites and is indispensable for keeping physicians updated and abreast with latest information in a field as dynamic as medicine. These forums not only help practitioners gain relevant and required medical information but also get them noticed and respected by peers and patients alike.

Healthcare IT companies are on their way to building a smarter, centralized and digitally managed healthcare system that will link doctors, patients and policy providers through a single, intelligible medical database. This fusion of medical knowledge and information technology driven by IT companies will not only lend patients a more pleasant and personalized healthcare experience, but will enable doctors to work with greater speeds and accuracy. 

However, for real change to come by, doctors must understand the importance of the game changers that healthcare IT companies are, and work in cooperation with them to contribute to a smart, intelligent and seamless global healthcare system.

References:

http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-technology/
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Advantages-Of-Doctors-Social-Networking/2803300
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/health-information-technology.html