TECHNOLOGIES IN HEALTHCARE2 Technology in Oncology Unit Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) System This is a wireless communication system that helps in improving communication, the flow of information, and quality of care in hospitals. Hospitals must evaluate the flow of staff, patients, and materials through their channels. There is normally a problem of an overflow of patients and lack of staff in the oncology units of most hospitals ("Innovative Technologies Help Patient Flow", 2019). As a result, patients are in most cases boarded in the hospitals thus leading to delays in the delivery of care. The RFID has an antenna that is connected to the data network of the hospital. It makes it easy to place tags on patients and materials in the hospital and the system captures information every time the tags move around the departments that helping in the management of patients ("Innovative Technologies Help Patient Flow", 2019). The technology also helps in enhancing communication between staff thus fostering flow in the hospital. Ethical Use of Clinical Information Doctors and other health practitioners must ensure that the privacy of all patient information is maintained in the right way. There have been major technological advances in the healthcare sector in recent years with the use of electronic health records and computers gaining a lot of popularity. However, these computers may sometimes be the subject of hacking by unethical hackers thus exposing the privacy of patients and their families. It is therefore important to have policies that govern the ethical use of clinical information systems. One such policy may be Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This policy guides the use and disclosure of a patient’s private information. It additionally ensures that the clinical information of a client is
TECHNOLOGIES IN HEALTHCARE3 highly protected but at the same time allows the flow of the necessary information needed to ensure the provision of quality and safe care (Edemekong & Haydel, 2019). Decreasing Readmission in the Cardiology Unit CardioMEMS This is a wireless device that helps in monitoring the condition of the heart and assessing the chances of a heart failure thus reducing the number of hospitalizations as a result of heart failure. It is easy to use by patients and also provides essential data to clinicians. This device can be given to people who have been hospitalized for heart failure so that they can monitor themselves and avoid readmission (Kanat & Nichols, 2017). According to studies, CardioMEMS has shown approximately a 33% drop in hospitalization and readmissions as a result of heart failure since 2017. Additionally, it significantly reduces the length of stay in hospitals in a situation where a patient is hospitalized. Technological Security Measures Cloud-based Security It is important to note that the healthcare industry deals with huge amounts of data that require large storage systems to ensure data security and integrity. This data cannot be safely stored in hardware installations thus making the use of cloud networks an obvious choice for the storage of all the data (Shenai & Aramudhan, 2018). This system also ensures the security of the stored data by looking for suspicious behaviours and dealing with them. They also warn the users of potential suspicious behaviours so that the necessary measures can be taken to protect the health information (Shenai & Aramudhan, 2018). The cloud providers and the healthcare centres work together to comply with the HIPAA regulations thus ensuring data security.
TECHNOLOGIES IN HEALTHCARE4 References Edemekong, P. F., & Haydel, M. J. (2019). Health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa). InStatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. InnovativeTechnologiesHelpPatientFlow. (2019). Retrieved18 September2019, from https://www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/architecture/innovative-technologies-help- patient-flow/ Kanat, N., & Nichols, M. (2017). 6 CardioMEMS for Effective Management of Heart Failure: Reducing Healthcare Utilization and 30 Day Readmissions.Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care,46(3), 213-214. Shenai, S., & Aramudhan, M. (2018). Cloud computing framework to securely share health & medicalrecordsamongfederationsofhealthcareinformationsystems.Biomedical Research (0970-938X).