- Introduction
- Fundamentals of database characteristics and structure
- Types of medical data and information record relevant to this project
- Importance of uniform terminology, coding, and standardization of the data
- Various information standards and organizations that may be applicable
- Three (3) healthcare information systems vendors
- References
Introduction
The urgency to improve health care quality and productivity has been necessitated by the constantly rising cost and demand of health care services globally. According to McDougall (1995) “This sense of urgency has led to the development of new healthcare delivery models, broad organizational restructuring”. This desire for restructuring has been felt on the urgent need to ensure that the sharing of information on patient medical history is electronically managed through modern health information systems. To effectively manage the health care information system and stay in tandem with the increase in demand and cost of health care services, the committee members must achieve an above-average knowledge in their levels in health care information systems.
Fundamentals of database characteristics and structure
The modern health information system is characterized by provider identifiers, site-of-care identifiers, and product labeling identifiers (American Dental Association, 1995). In addition to the above, features of communications/message format standards and content and structure standards of the applicable codes are critical for the accurate and successful analysis and retrieval of information.
Types of medical data and information record relevant to this project
In this project, Healthcare Provider Information – 275 – patient’s information that is widely applicable in electronically requiting patient information and data in regards to tests, procedures, surgeries, and allergies will form the basis of analysis and discussion.
Importance of uniform terminology, coding, and standardization of the data
The importance of the wide application of uniform terminology, coding, and standardization of the data in the health care industry is not particularly hard to discern. This is because uniformity in terminology ensures that there is a general agreement in the methods, procedures, and results of practices in the provision of health care services (Chute, 1991), coding enables easy, fast, and efficient electronic transfer of patient data from one point to another while standardization of data ensures the accuracy of medical data.
Various information standards and organizations that may be applicable
There exist lists of information standards and organizations that may be applicable and required for this project. These include The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) that according to Terrell, Dutton, Porter, and Cowles (1991) “has created a widely used provider identifier known as the Universal Physician Identifier Number (UPIN)”. In addition to that, relevant organizations in information standards include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) P1157
Medical Data Interchange Standard (MEDIX, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMB), American Medical Association (AMA), and International Standards Organization (ISO) (American National Standards Institute’s Health Care Informatics Standards Planning Panel, 1994).
Three (3) healthcare information systems vendors
The demand for the provision of quality health care services has also been demonstrated in the heightened competition between healthcare information systems vendors that offer electronic medical record products. These include 3M health information systems which are a renowned “Developer of health information systems for coding, classification, reimbursement, data management, and related areas” (Cannavo, 1993), the AMICAS, Inc. that remains the top “Provider and developer of AMICAS(TM), Internet-based software and services and the provision of an online medical imaging server that allows users to access, manage and store radiology images through a subscription to the web site” (Cannavo, 1993). Lastly, there is Argus Software Inc; this is a leading “Developer of quality control information management software for radiation medicine that runs on Windows and Macintosh systems” (Cannavo, 1993).
Health care information products from 3M are basically for coding and standardization while AMICAS products are best for online imaging in radiology. The Argus software specializes in the development of radiation soft wares for the management of radiation medicine. The barriers in the implementation of the three soft wares rest on the human capital required for the successful development and maintenance of the information systems.
References
American Dental Association (1995). American Dental Association Computer-based Oral Health Record Concept Model, Version 0.9, Chicago, IL.
American National Standards Institute’s Health Care Informatics Standards Planning Panel (1994). Task Group on Provider Identifiers, New York, NY.
Cannavo, M.J. (1993). The Last Word Regarding DEFF & DICOM, Healthcare Informatics, October 93: 32-34.
Chute, C.G. (1991). Tutorial 19: Clinical Data Representations; Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care, Washington, D.C.
McDougall, M. (1995). “Standard Gains Healthcare Industry Acceptance &Support,” Healthcare Informatics.
Terrell, S.A., Dutton, B.L., Porter, L., Cowles, C.M.,(1991). In Search of the denominator: Medicare Physicians -How many are there? Health Care Financing Administration, Baltimore, MD.