How will Medical informatics help in the Health care industries??

You are right Mr. Prathapan, Using telemedicine videoconferencing technology, the costs of specialist travel and patient transfer and the time involved in diagnosing an illness and making treatment decisions can be decreased.

Telemedicine, the practice of medicine from a distance, can be as simple as a telephone conversation between personnel or a fax transmission from a cardiologist to a primary care physician , or as complex as a real-time interactive video examination of a patient conducted by physicians separated by hundreds of miles. Currently, the most commonly used applications of this technology are education and administration. However, the clinical use of telemedicine technology is increasing.

Store-and-forward applications, in which images (e.g., x-rays, pathology slides) and other patient data acquired at one site are transmitted to a storage device at another site for later review, are now being used for teleradiology, telepathology, and teledermatology. Telemedicine systems are also being used for consultations in surgery, ophthalmology, dentistry, cardiology, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. Patient examinations are conducted using instruments (e.g., stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes) and examining cameras connected to the telemedicine system, allowing a physician at a remote site real-time access to the patient and real-time interaction with the examining physician, physician’s assistant, or nurse.

Using telemedicine videoconferencing technology can reduce the costs of specialist travel and patient transfer and can decrease the time involved in diagnosing an illness and making treatment decisions. Telemedicine technology has proven especially useful in consolidating the clinical resources of hospital/health systems, in overcoming geographic barriers and medical staffing shortages in order to treat patients in disaster and military situations, and in providing healthcare services to patients in isolated areas (e.g., rural areas, prisons). Wider acceptance and utilization of telemedicine technology are expected to improve the quality of care and reduce the costs of specialized care internationally.

The telemedicine system should have some form of security to avoid problems with data confidentiality. Access should be limited to only necessary personnel by means of logon names or secret access codes. Access to the system and the program code should also be restricted to prevent unauthorized individuals from intentionally or accidentally damaging components or stored data.

Problems may be encountered with upgrading and expanding a telemedicine system if it does not use an open architecture. Systems to be purchased should adhere to international telecommunications and networking standards, as well as computer industry standards, so that different device brands can be interconnected. To avoid data transmission problems, facilities should examine the telecommunications infrastructure in their area. Many rural areas cannot yet be accessed by digital services, and telemedicine installation costs for these areas could be very expensive.

Electric fluctuations can damage computer components, impair system performance, disrupt program operation, and destroy data. Preventive measures include installing an online uninterruptible power supply. Although a dedicated power line isolated for the central processing unit may not compensate for voltage variations, it may be useful to reduce signal noise. Copying disks at regular intervals protects stored information. Damage can also result from component failure or user abuse.

Health care technology is the practical application of knowledge to
the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. Although many
health care providers have classified only equipment, devices and
other hardware as technology, the discipline of health care technology
assessment has embraced a broader definition that also encompasses
drugs, clinical procedures and managerial systems. The
broad definition recognizes the multiple and complex interactions
between health care technologies and the wide range of human activities
and social organizations that adopt and incorporate technologies.
Health care technologies can be grouped into the following broad
categories:
n Devices, equipment and supplies. Examples include cardiac
pacemakers, computed tomography (CT) and positron emission
tomography (PET) scanners, surgical gloves, diagnostic test kits.
n Drugs. Examples include aspirin, beta-blockers, penicillin, vaccines,
blood products, colony stimulating factors, monoclonal antibodies.
n Medical and surgical procedures. Examples include psychotherapy,
coronary angiography, gall bladder removal.
n Systems of care. Examples include special care units (e.g. coronary
care, medical, surgical and neurological intensive care), rehabilitation
programs, screening programs.
n Support systems. Examples include paper and electronic patient
record systems, telemedicine systems, blood banks, clinical laboratories.
n Organizational and managerial systems. Examples include
prospective payment using diagnosis-related groups, alternative
health care delivery configurations such as vertically integrated
health care systems and clinical pathways.

   The developments in medical technology is helping to achieve Treatment & customer satisfaction in a fast and accurate way.