Providing healthcare services is an information intensive process. From just a brief survey of literature related to Health Informatics and health information systems one quickly discovers a plethora of innovative information technology systems and a buzz of activity surrounding organizations working to implement them. These technology systems and solutions are often coined by a variety names and in large contexts such as computer physician order entry, electronic health records, electronic prescription entry, clinical decision support, evidence based medicine, charge capture, bar coding, remote patient monitoring…etc. Indeed, there are far too many to be covered in this module.

Of particular interest, however, is that the vast majority of these information technology systems are patent centered and focus largely on a common theme: to give healthcare professional access and exchange essential information in a manner that is proximate, in terms of both time and space, to the patient and point-of-care. Since healthcare professionals must be highly mobile and un-tethered, so too must be the devices that connect them to needed information systems. Hence, the reason why this module focuses strongly on wireless systems and mobile computing devices.

Mobile computing devices such as laptops, notebooks, tablets and Personal Device Assistants (PDAs) provide users with a level of power that was previously only available on the desktop PC. Early mobile devices were bulky and clumsy and had low computing and battery power, and thus had low appeal amongst computer users. More recently, however, the decrease in size and increase in the computing and battery power of mobile devices has led to an increase in their use to provide mobile computing solutions.

Wireless technology provides mobile computers users with a means of accessing and transmitting data to and from a central collection point. Wireless technology standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth allow healthcare organizations to set up wireless networks so that mobile computing devices can both connect to these networks for data transmission in addition to exchanging information between one another. These organizations are now beginning to apply mobile computing solutions to various aspects of healthcare services such as point-of-care collection of information, care assessments, orders and electronic prescriptions.

One of the advantages organizations can enjoy from deployment of mobile computing solutions include the “anytime and anywhere” access. This is a phrase that has been coined by the proponents of wireless technology, which basically describes the situation that allows users to connect to wireless networks to access data from almost any point and at anytime of the day they choose to. This not only addresses the issue of immediacy in accessing data but also increases the flexibility in the manner in which a healthcare professional can work.

There is a large amount of background material presented in this module. Accordingly, it is not necessary for you to read and comprehend every page of material in great detail. However, be sure to at least peruse the material and capture the main concepts. Of course, drill down into areas that you finding interesting and useful for answering the assignment questions.

Library Instructions:

To access articles in the Library, please follow these steps:

Login to CourseNet at https://coursenet.trident.edu/

On the left hand navigation pane under Resources, select “Library Portal.”
From there, you will be directed to the Touro College Library database. If you know the database in which your article is located, then select that database to start your search.
If you cannot locate an article in one set of databases (i.e. EBSCO), try to locate it in ProQuest.

Required Readings

The following is a compendium of articles published by Health Informatics Online that describes nine technology trends. Nine Tech Trends 1

Peter Waegemann and Claudia Tessier offer an interesting look mobile healthcare computing. Documentation Goes Wireless 2

This article presented in the Journal of the American Medial Informatics Association provides a in depth overview of wireless handheld applications. Wireless Handheld Applications 3

Kevin Featherly examines the next generation of emerging technologies, which certain tends toward the “bleeding edge”. Emerging Technologies 4

The following papers presented by the California Healthcare Foundation, provide very comprehensive examinations of several relevant emerging technologies. Note the short video presentations associated with each paper.

Wireless (pdf) 5

E-prescribing (pdf) 6

E-encounters (pdf) 7

E-disease management (pdf) 8

Sources Referenced Above

Nine Tech Trends (2005). Healthcare Informatics Online.
Waegemann, C. P. and Tessier, C. (2002). Documentation Goes Wireless: A Look at Mobile Healthcare Computing Devices. Journal of AHIMA, 73 (8), 36-39.
Chen, E. S., Mendonca, E. A., McKnight, L. K., Stetson, P. D., Lei, J. & Cimino, J. J. (2004). Palm CIS: A Wireless Handheld Application for Satisfying Clinician Information Needs. Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, 11, 19-28.

Emerging Technologies (2004). Healthcare Informatics Online.
Turisco, F. and Case, J. (2001). Wireless and Mobile Computing. California HealthCare Foundation: iHealth Reports.
Kilbridge, P. and Gladysheva, K. (2001). E-Prescribing. California HealthCare Foundation: iHealth Reports.
MacDonald, K., Case, J. and Metzger, J. (2001). E-Encounters. California HealthCare Foundation: iHealth Reports.
LeGrow, G. and Metzger, J. (2001). E-Disease Management. California HealthCare Foundation: iHealth Reports.

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