Healthcare System: Impact of Future Trends and Technologies

This essay examines the significant impact of emerging trends on the healthcare system, focusing on the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), telemedicine, and health IT. The introduction highlights the drivers of healthcare reform, including an aging population, the rise of chronic diseases, and escalating costs. The essay then details the benefits of EHRs, such as improved patient care quality, enhanced communication among healthcare teams, and reduced medication errors. It also explores how telemedicine enhances care accessibility, especially for the elderly and those in remote areas, by utilizing videoconferencing to facilitate consultations and remote monitoring. Finally, the essay discusses the role of health IT, particularly patient portals, in empowering both patients and providers with crucial health information, improving patient outcomes, and supporting preventive care. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of these trends in fostering a more efficient and cost-effective healthcare system.

Running head: IMPACT OF FUTURE TRENDS ON HEALTHCARE
IMPACT OF FUTURE TRENDS ON HEALTHCARE
Name of the Student
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1IMPACT OF FUTURE TRENDS ON HEALTHCARE
Introduction
Healthcare reform is spreading at a rapid rate throughout the World. Although the rate at
which healthcare reform can be carried out depends on the country, city or the region, the
fundamental basics that are initiating such healthcare reforms are same throughout the World.
These include the increase in the ageing population that impacts the costs of care, emergence of
various diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental health
problems like Alzheimer’s disease, depression, among others are increasing at a rapid rate and
have more or less attained the status of an epidemic. Another very important healthcare issue that
requires immediate attention is the ever increasing costs of care (Moses et al., 2013).
This essay will describe 3 trends that are affecting the healthcare system and will also
describe how these trends affect the health information services. The trends that will be
described in this essay are adoption of electronic health records (EHR), telemedicine and health
IT.
Adoption of EHR
Use of electronic health and medical records will be the health information and
communication technology train stations of the future. EHRs are known to have a positive effect
on the quality of patient care and also simplifies the workings of the healthcare professionals
(Elsevier Connect, 2018). The various advantages of adopting the electronic medical records
include better information provided to the healthcare providers, improves the relationships and
the ability to communicate between a multidisciplinary healthcare team and family physicians
and has a beneficial effect on the workflow. EHR provide quick access to patient informations in

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order to provide efficient and coordinated care. Healthcare providers have the information about
the patients in order to make quick and timely clinical decisions. It also provides enhanced
aggregation, analysis and successful communication of the patient informations, can provide
clinical alerts and can act as reminders, provide support to therapeutic decisions and also
prevents the occurrence of any adverse events. This in turn helps to provide favorable patient
outcomes that positively impacts the patient experience. EHR also helps to ensure increased
participation of the patients in self-care. The patients obtain accurate information about their
health and the healthcare providers can define the self-care instructions to them. It also helps to
carry out quick communication between patients and healthcare providers thereby ensuring
timely identification of symptoms and providing quality care. EHR will also positively impact
the healthcare sector by reducing medication errors due to poor communication, increased
patient safety and in turn provide better outcomes for the patient. It provides better means of
communication between primary care providers and the emergency departments by
communicating patient information that must be kept in mind to ensure patient safety
(Healthit.gov, 2018).
Telemedicine
With the increase in the aged population and due to the presence of debilitating diseases,
it is essential that care be provided to them at the safe confines of their homes. Telemedicine
involves the use of videoconferencing that enables the healthcare providers to provide quality
care to the aged and physically challenged. Telemedicine is another way of sharing information
between patients and healthcare providers and is an important area of the information and
communication technology that will have an impact on the healthcare sectors. With the increase
in the elderly and physically challenged individuals the healthcare sectors remain highly

3IMPACT OF FUTURE TRENDS ON HEALTHCARE
pressurized in order to provide cost-effective and quality care to them. Thus, videoconferencing
will enable them to communicate with the healthcare providers and in turn the healthcare
professionals can prescribe medications to them. Moreover, telemedicines or telehealthcare
enhances the ability of the patients living in remote areas to obtain clinical support and services.
It can also provide intensive care and emergency services, patients can be timely diagnosed and
treated, reduces healthcare costs. These in turn results in reduction in mortality rates and reduced
incidences of patient complications (Caltrc.org, 2018).
Health IT
With the increase in various types of chronic diseases and increase in the aged
populations, health information technology will play an important role in empowering the
healthcare providers and patients with information that will enable them to overcome health
adversities. Health information technology in the form of patient portals can provide necessary
information to the patients but also to the healthcare providers by monitoring the status of the
emerging chronic diseases and their impact on the population. This in turn will enable them to
organize the resources and utilize them judiciously and also carry out data analysis. Patient
portals gives 24 hour access to the patients about their medications, doctor visits, allergies,
immunizations, lab results, among others. Patient portals also enable the patients to exchange e-
mails with their healthcare providers, request for prescription refills, view educational resources,
among others. Such portals also ensure increased quality of care and enhanced preventive care
thereby increasing efficiency and patient outcomes (Healthit.gov, 2018). Communication failures
between doctors and nurses often give rise to adverse events and health information technology
helps to reduce such communication failures (Manojlovich et al., 2015).

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Conclusion
Thus, the recently emerging trends will play an important role in ensuring that the
healthcare system functions efficiently. Such trends are the use of EHR, telemedicine and health
information technology in the form of patient portals. With the increase in the ageing population
along with the emergence of chronic diseases it is believed that such trends will have a positive
impact on the healthcare sectors contributing to enhanced efficiency and reduced care costs.

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Reference List
Caltrc.org. (2018). Why are Telemedicine and Telehealth so Important in Our Healthcare
System? | California Telehealth Resource Center. Caltrc.org. Retrieved 18 January 2018,
from http://www.caltrc.org/telehealth/why-are-telemedicine-and-telehealth-so-important-
in-our-healthcare-system/
Elsevier Connect. (2018). Top trends in health information & communications technology for
2017. Elsevier Connect. Retrieved 18 January 2018, from
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/top-trends-in-health-information-and-communications-
technology-for-2017
Healthit.gov. (2018). Improving Patient Outcomes and Diagnostics with EHRs | Providers &
Professionals | HealthIT.gov. Healthit.gov. Retrieved 18 January 2018, from
https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/improved-diagnostics-patient-outcomes
Healthit.gov. (2018). What is a patient portal? | FAQs | Providers & Professionals |
HealthIT.gov. Healthit.gov. Retrieved 18 January 2018, from
https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/faqs/what-patient-portal
Manojlovich, M., Adler-Milstein, J., Harrod, M., Sales, A., Hofer, T. P., Saint, S., & Krein, S. L.
(2015). The effect of health information technology on health care provider
communication: A mixed-method protocol. JMIR research protocols, 4(2).
Moses, H., Matheson, D. H., Dorsey, E. R., George, B. P., Sadoff, D., & Yoshimura, S. (2013).
The anatomy of health care in the United States. Jama, 310(18), 1947-1964.

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