Impact of the Internet upon Management of Health Information in the UK - Essay Example

Impact of the Internet upon Management of Health Information in the UK Introduction: The growth in the internet world in the past decade has impacted many areas of concern drastically. The use of information technology has enabled many departments such as education, entertainment and health to develop much more than anyone could expect (Zielińsk et al, 2006, p131). Professors and doctors, ten years ago, did not have any idea how far internet would take the health sector, especially in the UK. The internet can be used for more than one purposes, it can be used by doctors and patients for entirely different purposes (Tyrrell, 2002, p68). The healthcare sector in the UK has seen great development because of the expansion of the internet. The world is becoming a global village day by day and internet is playing an important role in this process. The internet gives an access to matters related to every subject, however, when it is about health it can be complicated. Health is something for which no risk can be taken as it relates directly to the life and death of a person (Eder, 2000, p1). Though internet has played an important role in the development of healthcare, there are still many reasons why internet cannot be considered reliable in this case. On the other hand, the internet has been a helping hand for doctors immensely. The different viewpoints on this will be analyzed further. The use of internet in healthcare: The main contribution towards the UK healthcare made by the internet is the access to a number of studies and advancements. On the internet, people from all over the world can share their ideas, researches and discoveries. Healthcare is an area which is being developed everyday as new medicines and drugs are made to treat several dangerous diseases still incurable. Because of the internet, if any doctor from anywhere around the world finds out a new treatment, he shares it on the internet which reaches the whole world (Joseph, 2005, p448). This has enabled many doctors in UK to get in touch with other great doctors around the world and share views. They share each other's ideas, and discuss to form new treatments. This enables many ideas and viewpoints to be shared and thus contributes towards the advancement of the healthcare system. The internet has allowed many doctors to research about facts from around the world, and implementing them in their healthcare system to make it better (Bower, 2000, p5). In the same way, the doctors who are in practice may not get enough time but the students who are studying in universities like Oxford or Cambridge keep researching and finding about new advancements in the medical sector. The information they get are, in the same way, posted and shared with the doctors and healthcare management through the internet and it greatly helps the management to enhance their healthcare system. The continuous sharing of ideas brings out a new result every time which may prove to be very useful for the healthcare system. This use of internet also enables continuous updated research to reach the ones it may concern (Shabtai, et al, 2007, p91). The healthcare management in the UK uses internet and the information technology not only to research and find out about new facts, but also to keep a record of the patients. Just as in the court precedents are updated with the new laws and up to date cases, the doctors keep a record of every patient. This greatly helps them in many ways. Firstly, it helps them to keep a record of every single part of treatment which was made for the patient, as it may be useful for any patient suffering with the same disease (Middleton, 2006, p1173). An old record will not remind the doctor the medicines that he used; in fact it will help the doctor to analyze the approximate cost and time that the patient will take to recover. Such information may be generally asked by the patients’ relatives. Secondly, this record helps the doctor to make his own record of how many patients he dealt, how many were successfully cures, how many were not etc. This would contribute in keeping the record of the doctor’s success which would cause his standard to increase (Berg, 2004, p33). Various methods of using information technology in healthcare: There are various methods used in the information technology for the improvement of healthcare system in the UK. It helps to improve the quality of the healthcare management of UK. The various ways in which the information technology is used is firstly, the medium to communicate. The information technology helps to communicate with the patients, providers, insurers and several others who are associated to the healthcare management. The doctors are in touch with their patients through the use of information technology, whether he is cured or is under the treatment (Childs, 2007, p3). Daily visits to the doctors may be time consuming and costly, thus this is a way in which the doctors stay in contact improving the efficiency. Many patients are physically weak and thus this applies for them greatly. Apart from patients, the providers or the suppliers of medicines etc. are in touch through the use of information technology. This will again kill the time taken to visit each hospital and present to them the medicines and take orders. Orders as to which medicines are in need are given online to the suppliers making it easy for both the parties (Nwosu and Cox, 2000, p161). The suppliers and the healthcare management also keep a record of how many medicines were used the most and which are needed continuously. The healthcare management keeps all records, daily check in and out time etc. in the computers using information technology and this helps them avoid daily paper work which is difficult to handle and takes a lot of storage place (Rodrigues, 2009, p207). Value of information technology: The value of information in healthcare was never so important. The main feature is that the use of information technology reduces cost and improves quality. Healthcare information technology has been increasing rapidly in UK, and doctors state that the information technology has enabled the healthcare management to advance greatly. Information technology holds immense value in the modern era. There are many areas where the manual ways of healthcare management has been replaced by the use of information technology. The use of information technology has been adopted by all the hospitals public or private. The value of information technology also increases the value of healthcare, as it did in the UK. The healthcare system has been advanced by the use of information technology and it has greatly contributed in the improved efficiency of this sector (Potts and Wyatt, 2000, p5). Advantages and disadvantages of using the information technology in healthcare: Another use of the internet on the healthcare is that the patients access to the huge variety of information available on the internet about every medical issue. Internet has become the first advisor of the patient who looks up the internet websites to seek health advice. There are several websites that give patients health advices, information, doctors who are online to whom patients consult sitting at home and many more aspects. However, such advices from the internet at times confuse the patient into doing something that they are not supposed to do. The health information that is available on the internet has many advantages and disadvantages. The information available on the internet has proved to be advantageous for the patients and also for the common people. It has enabled them to get in touch with the facts that previously they did not know. The internet and the access to all the aspects have lead people to become much more knowledgeable than they were before. Any treatment or any health problem can be searched and accessed through the internet (NHS Archives, 2010, p1). This creates more awareness about the facts and the information about healthcare amongst the people. Another advantage is the access to healthcare advice which is available on many online websites and forums. Patients can get to know more about their problems, and it will help them to discuss the matters more clearly with their professional, and thus helping him to get over it as quick as possible. However, a major disadvantage of relying on the internet health advice and information is that the patient does not know whether the person sitting on the other end is actually a doctor or not. This may be really dangerous for the patient’s life, thus it is important not to completely rely on the internet and take medical advice from the family doctor. The advice available on the internet is not authentic and statistics have proved it. Statistics have shown that there have been immense advices taken for several health issues in the UK, and 60% of the information provided was not authentic. It is always to take an advice from the professionally qualified doctor (Murero and Rice, p154). Another problem which arises because of these online health advices is the doctor-patient relationship. The relationship between a doctor, who is comfortable with the internet and with his patients declaring their autonomy and having explored different sites with accurate information, is much stronger than those doctors who are not up to date with the internet and whose patients bring them flawed information (Childs, 2007, p3). People who use the internet to find solutions to health matters have more knowledge and therefore, it becomes unnecessary for them to visit the doctor. Moreover, health websites have taught patients a lot about different treatments and procedures which they demand their doctors to practice. If they do not agree, then the patients simply find another doctor (Charles et al, 2010, p17). Methods of transforming data into information: In many ways the data can be transferred into information. The UK healthcare management has adopted the method of using technologies and thus they transform the data into information. All the records that they have are transferred in the computer to make the use of information technology. There can be many techniques through which this data is transformed in meaningful information technology (Currie and Finnegan, 2009, p87). The UK healthcare management has used many techniques that transform the data into information. One of the techniques is the usage of devices that enable information to be recorded in the computer itself. For example, the device that can recognize finger prints and check in the doctor. In this way the computer records that the doctor has been present in the hospital. This means that the manual ways of keeping record are no more needed, as they were difficult to manage. In the same way the supply of medicines can be done using the device which reads bar codes and the records can be automatically entered in the computer about the medicines supply (Armoni, 2000, p237). Information technology and decision making The increased usability of the information technology in healthcare management has enabled the management to carry out the decision making through the medical information technology. It greatly helps in improving decision making as it analyzes the statistics clearly and shows records in just a click, which helps the management to come to decisions quickly. Any patient’s data or doctor’s data can be found in just a click from the hundreds of records, which cuts the time and cost taken to find the specific record. The UK healthcare management has greatly improved the decision making in the past decade because of the use of information technology in the management. It shows how much the investments made in the information technology have been proved to be worthwhile. The medical decision making processes have been improved in the care of surgical departments and the use of medicines. The use of information technology in UK healthcare management has greatly contributed to the researchers by providing them the insight of decision processes (Funabashi and Grzech, 2005, p251). The enhanced research options have enabled them gaining more medical information, physicians by allowing them to use more information for efficiency, practitioners by improving and using new efficient ways to practice and utilize the new designs of medial advancements, patients by taking the advantage of improved medical facilities and to policy decision makers in the UK healthcare management regarding the investments in such systems and managing their team. Conclusion The various methods used to analyze the data into information technology have enabled many sectors to advance rapidly; healthcare being one of them. The healthcare management in UK has improved efficiency and decision making immensely as a result of the impactful use of information technology. The internet has caused the world of healthcare to stay in touch which helps to modify the healthcare system. On the other hand, the use of information technology has let the management improve and change the way of handling information. Overall, the advancements seen in the UK healthcare management have been greatly valued, and information technology has been one of the most important factors in this advancement. References Armoni, A. (2000). Healthcare Information Systems: Challenges of the New Millennium. London: Idea Group Inc. (IGI). Berg, M. (2004). Health Information Management: Integrating Information Technology in Health Care Work. London: Routledge Bower, A.G. (2005). The Diffusion and Value of Healthcare Information Technology. London: RAND Corporation Charles A. Shoniregun, Kudakwashe Dube, Fredrick Mtenzi. (2010). Electronic Healthcare Information Security. NY: Springer Currie, W. and Finnegan, D. (2009). 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