Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has released a report detailing the top nine ways IT is transforming the health care industry, Becker's Hospital Review reports (Rodak, Becker's Hospital Review, 11/16).
The report noted that health IT has significant potential to make the U.S. health care system more patient-centered.
Nine Transformative Characteristics
According to the report, health IT can:
- Identify potential mistakes and reduce medical errors;
- Improve collaboration among health care providers through the use of digitized health information;
- Ensure seamless transitions for patients who change care settings;
- Enable faster emergency care via mobile technologies that allow physicians to obtain real-time information on a patient's condition;
- Provide patients and their families with greater access to medical information and empower them to become educated advocates for their own care;
- Make care more convenient for patients through tools such as online appointment scheduling, telehealth, remote monitoring and mobile technology;
- Improve care for military service members by providing medics with immediate access to medical records;
- Enhance the response to public health emergencies and disasters; and
- Facilitate new medical breakthroughs and provide a platform for innovation (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 11/16).