Changes in health care are at a breakneck pace. Regardless of the many changes we have collectively experienced, delivering health care has been, is, and will continue to be an enormously information-intensive process. Whether caring for a patient or a population, whether managing a clinic or a continuum, we are in a knowledge exchange business. A major task for our industry, and the task for chief information officers (CIOs), is to find and apply improved strategies and technologies for managing healthcare information. In a fiercely competitive healthcare marketplace, the pressures to suc-...

This book has been a long time in the making. The computerization activi- ties described in these pages began in 1977 at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but we devoted most of our focus and efforts to building and then implementing the extensive hospital information system known as the Decentralized Hospital Computer System (DHCP) throughout VA. Deliv- ering the product has been our primary goal. We spent relatively little time documenting or describing our experiences or lessons learned. Except for some presentations at national meetings and a relatively few publications, almost...

Introduction to Clinical Informatics fills a void in the Computer in Health Care series. With this volume, Patrice Degoulet and Marius Fieschi provide a comprehensive view of medical informatics and carry that concept forward into the realm of clinical informatics. The authors draw upon their experi- ences as medical school faculty members in France, where informatics has long been integrated into the curriculum and where the French version of this very book has been used, tested, and revised. In intent and content, this volume stands as the companion volume to Introduction to Nursing...

Information and the technology to rapidly transmit, analyze, document, and disperse this information are increasing arithmetically, if not logarithmi- cally. Arguably, no discipline better exemplifies this trend than medicine. It can be further argued that care of the trauma patient is one of the better examples of informatics and the potential benefit to the health profession- als who care for these patients. Maull and Augenstein have provided us with a primer on informatics and its use in trauma care. The subject matter is timely and covers the gamut of trauma care from prehospital to...

Information technology constantly changes and quickly becomes obsolete. The methodology of planning and implementing a health care information system, however, is more constant. Through practical, step-by-step guidelines, the author demonstrates how to establish the strategy and architecture against which vendor and system decisions must be made. Both management and technical perspectives are discussed. Thus, regardless of the technology used, the health care administrator and systems manager learn to implement information systems successfully and to link those systems with business strategy...

Following both a patient and an employee through a physician visit, this is a "how-to" manual for implementing practice management solutions. The first section provides information and examples prior to the patient visit, and includes examples of physicians who utilize email and Web sites to attract patients, electronic scheduling systems to decrease wait time, and registration systems which can verify insurance information. The second section focuses on electronic medical records, electronic referral systems, billing and collection systems, and follow-up patient education and discharge...

This book informs readers of the needs and rationale for the integration of medical and dental care and information with an international perspective as to how and where medical and dental care separated into specific domains. It provide high level guidance on issues involved with care and data integration and how to achieve an integrated model of health care supported by integrated HIT. A patient typically expects that a visit to a dentist can usually be resolved immediately. This expectation places a premium on instant, accurate, thorough, and current information. The state-of-the-art of...

Teledentistry is of growing interest to the healthcare world. Over the last few years, momentum is growing in research and service in Teledentistry - mostly carried out by tertiary medical institutes across the world. While Teledentistry is advanced in some sub-specialties, it has high potential to receive more attention from general communities, dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, researchers and students. For the first time, this book will present essential knowledge from experts in this field. They will discuss the current status of technology and service in various...

There is now considerable experience of implementing electronic prescribing systems in hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom and other healthcare economies, with clear evidence that a well-designed electronic prescribing system can improve patient safety and quality of care. There is therefore likely to be an exponential growth in the significance of electronic prescribing over the next ten years. This second edition of Principles of Electronic Prescribing discusses the basic principles of design and implementation of secondary care electronic medicines management systems, and...