Dr. Martin Harris, Director of Informatics and CIO at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States, analyzes the clinical benefits of ICTs in Healthcare and explains how to strengthen healthcare in rural regions in Latin America, offering an insight into the themes he would address during his presentation at the Annual HIMSS Latin America Conference and Exhibition 2015.
What is your opinion of the strategies that promote the adoption of Health IT at the Cleveland Clinic?
Our main philosophy and common focus is to ensure the highest quality medical care is provided to all the patients who trust us with their health or the health of a loved one. Thus, all our clinical and business strategies must help us to achieve this objective in the best way possible. In recent years we have focused not just on increasing the quality of the care we provide but also maximizing the value that patients and customers receive, ensuring that our care is more accessible and economic over time.
With information technology systems it is possible to analyze large amounts of data and securely connect clinical care teams to patients. At the hospital, IT plays an important role in our capacity to define and achieve the objectives we set ourselves.
Cleveland Clinic, in fact, has been increasing its efficacy and reducing costs through the use of supply ordering systems and automated monitoring – including totally autonomous robots that receive and fill orders of medical supplies 24 hours a day. These systems reduce our service execution time and free up our care providers to spend more time with their patients and less time on administrative tasks.
How can healthcare be improved in rural areas in Latin America?
Information technology has great potential for connecting the people who live in rural areas with the kind of care services they need. But to fulfill the potential of Health IT we first need to establish a basic level of infrastructure:
a) Online infrastructure: information technology can be very useful at offering its services to connect patients and specialized doctors with no need for either to travel to interact clinically.
b) Continuous monitoring: as the medical devices become more accessible, monitoring can be carried out remotely via telephone connections. The power of IT, for example, makes it possible for a computer to classify – within a range of values – and inform doctors which patients are fine and which require a consult.
What topics will you address during your presentation at the HIMSS Latin America Conference?
Firstly, I will share some of my observations on the value of integrated IT in Healthcare in a system by which suppliers can offer care at an efficient cost. Secondly, I will discuss the scope of the Health IT tools that will be necessary for us to meet our potential for accessible, economic care for every patient. Finally, I will unite these ideas with a case study of patient monitoring.
