Exploring the Importance of ICT in Health and Social Care Settings

This report delves into the critical role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in health and social care, emphasizing its transformative impact across various aspects of the healthcare system. It defines ICT and its applications, highlighting how it facilitates information sharing and communication among healthcare professionals, patients, and their families. The report discusses specific ICT devices like Electronic Health Records (EHRs), barcode scanning technology, and radio imaging devices, detailing their benefits in improving efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility of care. It explores the perspectives of users, care workers, and organizations, showcasing how ICT enhances patient access to personal health records, enables telemedicine, reduces medical errors, improves teamwork, and streamlines administrative processes. The report references various studies to support the claims regarding the positive impact of ICT on healthcare delivery, patient outcomes, and overall organizational efficiency.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Importance of ICT in health and social care
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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1IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTH
AND SOCIAL CARE

2IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
ICT can be defined in the very basic sense as the variety of
different tools and services that improve and facilitate sharing
information and communication among the health care
professionals and the patients and their family members (George,
Whitehouse and Duquenoy 2012). Along with that, it has to be
mentioned that the applicative benefits of ICT extends further to
allowing the health care professionals to continuously build their
competency and educational capacity in order to be able to access
educational journals from all over the world.
Access and use of standard ICT software packages to support
work in health and social care
According to the Lindberg et al. (2013), ICT has become
one of the most integral components of healthcare industry
that has enhanced the efficiency of both delivering safe and
effective care but also enhancing the accessibility of the
health care services for varied patient populations. There are
various different types of ICT devices that have been
introduced in the health care industry, and each one of them
have a significant impact on improving the health care
delivery.

3IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Different types of ICT devices used in health
Electronic health records (EHR):
One of the greatest achievements that the application of ICT has bestowed on
the health care industry is the introduction of the EHRs. These are nothing but
electronic version of the paper handover charts for the patients. However, the
benefit of using the EHRs instead of regular paper handover charts is the fact
that the EHRs are real time and these are much more secure format that is
instantly available for the care providers and can only be accessed by
authorized users (Shortliffe and Cimino 2013).
Radio imaging devices:
The radio imaging devices are the services that provide a varied range of
imaging techniques that provide different diagnostic measures such as the X-
ray, mammography, computed tomography scans that has eased the diagnostic
procedures effectively.
Barcode scanning technology:
The introduction of barcode scanning procedure has been another
technological break-through in the health care industry which has reduced the
emergency room triage time by automatically updating the patient profile by
just scanning the barcode and commencing with the required treatment (King
et al. 2012).

4IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Benefits of ICT application in health and social care
From users’ perspective:
One of the greatest benefits of the application of the information and
communication technology is the introduction of personal health records,
an extension of the broad concept of eHealth which helps in the patients
being able to access their personal health records, disease state, treatment
progress, and even diagnostic results easily and instantaneously
(Antheunis, Tates and Nieboer 2013).
Telemedicine or the technology of remote diagnosis and treatment of the
patients with the help or telecommunication and video imaging
technology has eradicated the health care accessibility for the patents
from remote locations with limited health care coverage. Along with that,
it has to be mentioned in this context that the incorporation of
telemedicine has eradicated the need for the elderly, frail, or critically ill
and mobility restricted patients to be going for follow ups and checkups.
The aid of text messages and the emails connected with the personal
health record services for the patient has also helped in enhancing the
follow up attendance of the patients and by constant reminders of
checkups and visits to the facility (Haluza and Jungwirth 2014).
The introduction of the ICT in the health and social care context has also
helped the patients in adapting the aid of self-monitoring and self-care
with the aid of health buddy system and resources available on the
internet apps.

5IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
From the care worker’s perspective:
The first and foremost benefit of the ICT implementation that has to be
discussed for the perspective of the care workers is the benefits provided
by the use of the EHRs. It has to be mentioned that most of the medical
errors that has the potential of harming the patients have been associated
with the paper based records (Jimoh et al. 2012). The use of electronic
health records has eliminated the risk of misinterpretation and errors with
clinical judgment by introducing a fully automated and internet linked
recording services which can only be accessed by the authorized users
eliminating the risk of loss of confidentiality.
Along with that it has to be mentioned that another very common source
of reduced care quality has been the lack of adequate patient centred care
delivery. The advanced technologies provided by the ICT implementation
has helped in the quick identification of the patient and prompt care
initiation.
The introduction of the ICT has also improved the teamwork and co-
operation among the health care workers eliminating the possibility of
conflict or misunderstanding with electronic and automated services.
Lastly, the ICT devices are a potent tool for implementing and enhancing
the effectiveness of the evidence based practice by enhancing the
accessibility of the educational resources (Hage et al. 2013).

6IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
From organization’s perspective:
Implementation of ICT has helped tremendously in enhancing the safety
and effectiveness of the care that is provided to the patients and has also
helped in meeting the quality benchmark set for the care facilities.
It has effectively reduced the frequency of medication errors and other
patient misidentification errors with the initiation of EHRs and barcode
scanning devices (Shiferaw and Zolfo 2012).
The introduction of the ICT devices in the health care industry has
improved the transparency of the medical billing systems and has also
helped the health care workers adhere to evidence based practice
protocols in care planning and implementation procedure.
It has helped in improving the spread of the health care services and has
helped in carrying out distant consultation services, diagnosis and
treatment with telemedicine (Hage et al. 2013).
It has also strengthened the ability of the administrative departments of
the health care facility to enhance the operational efficiency and
monitoring processes.

7IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Legal consideration of ICT implementation in health and social
care
The personal health records or the EHRs contain confidential and private information of the patients which
should not be disclosed in any circumstances under confidentiality protection acts. The internet database links of
these records can be breached if certain protective measures are not taken; this is significant legal concern
associated with ICT in health care.
Another very important aspect associated with implementation of ICT in health and social care is the initiation of
the internet pharmacy which has a heightened risk of confidentiality breach and liability issues as there is no
proof of the pharmacist having a valid registration (Shiferaw and Zolfo 2012).
The internet mediated contact servicers such as Email notification or text messages is another applicative benefit
of the ICT implementation in the health care context. These records and information are also at risk of being
breached which can be a significant legal risk to the facility as well.
Along with that, lastly with the implementation of the information and communication technology is the link
with social media as well. The breach of the personal medical information about the patient in any of the social
media websites can be considered as a very important legal implication of the ICT and its link with the health
and social care services (Kapadia et al. 2015).

8IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
References:
Antheunis, M.L., Tates, K. and Nieboer, T.E., 2013. Patients’ and health professionals’ use of
social media in health care: motives, barriers, and expectations. Patient education and
counseling, 92(3), pp.426-431.
George, C., Whitehouse, D. and Duquenoy, P. eds., 2012. eHealth: legal, ethical and
governance challenges. Springer Science & Business Media.
Hage, E., Roo, J.P., van Offenbeek, M.A. and Boonstra, A., 2013. Implementation factors and
their effect on e-Health service adoption in rural communities: a systematic literature
review. BMC health services research, 13(1), p.19.
Haluza, D. and Jungwirth, D., 2014. ICT and the future of health care: Aspects of doctor-patient
communication. International journal of technology assessment in health care, 30(3), pp.298-
305.
Jimoh, L., Pate, M.A., Lin, L. and Schulman, K.A., 2012. A model for the adoption of ICT by
health workers in Africa. International journal of medical informatics, 81(11), pp.773-781.
Kapadia, V., Ariani, A., Li, J. and Ray, P.K., 2015. Emerging ICT implementation issues in aged
care. International journal of medical informatics, 84(11), pp.892-900.
King, G., O’Donnell, C., Boddy, D., Smith, F., Heaney, D. and Mair, F.S., 2012. Boundaries and
e-health implementation in health and social care. BMC medical informatics and decision
making, 12(1), p.100.
Lindberg, B., Nilsson, C., Zotterman, D., Söderberg, S., and Skär, L. 2013. Using Information
and Communication Technology in Home Care for Communication between Patients, Family

9IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Members, and Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review. International Journal of
Telemedicine and Applications, 2013, 461829.
Shiferaw, F. and Zolfo, M., 2012. The role of information communication technology (ICT)
towards universal health coverage: the first steps of a telemedicine project in Ethiopia. Global
health action, 5(1), p.15638.
Shortliffe, E.H., and Cimino, J.J. eds., 2013. Biomedical informatics: computer applications in
health care and biomedicine. Springer Science & Business Media