Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare organization or nursing practice.

Question

Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent in the technologies associated with these trends you described. Then, describe at least one potential benefit and one potential risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care for the technologies you described. Next, explain which healthcare technology trends you believe are most promising for impacting healthcare technology in nursing practice and explain why. Describe whether this promise will contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies, or data management. Be specific and provide examples.

Dan Palmer · Accepted Answer

Among some of the biggest trends in healthcare is the use of electronic health records, artificial intelligence, and other more specific technologies such as biosensor tools. According to Cowie et al. (2017), electronic health records are the digital versions of patient charts that make instant availability of information of patients to the authorized users, as well as treatment and medical history of the patient. These electronic health records help in improving the ability of healthcare givers to share patient information and to coordinate the improvement of the patients (Barak-Corren et al., 2017). Artificial intelligence (AI) systems, on the other hand, are computerized simulations of human beings that can perform human functions such as data management, patient diagnoses, and routine medication. AI systems help in ensuring that the human elements of fatigue and making errors are reduced throughout the provision of care. These trends in healthcare have led to a complete change in the face of care. Potential Threats that may be Inherent to the Healthcare Trends While electronic health records help in making patient information instantly to the authorizes users, there is the risk of insecurity of the data, so that it gets to the wrong uses or to the wrong users. Whenever a patient submits their information to a database, it becomes hard for them to assume control over it, especially when some of them are too sick. People who are in teaching hospitals engage in a lot of research that uses patient data, and some of the time, they may not obtain proper consent before using this data (Rao-Gupta et al., 2017). This is one of the threats that jeopardizes the application of this technology in the healthcare continuum. Similarly, AI can be lethal if there is a problem in programming that proves to be challenging to patient outcomes. Potential Benefits and Potential Risks associated with Data Safety, Legislation, and Patient Care for the Described Technologies One of the potential benefits of using electronic health records with regard to legislation, data safety, and patient care is that it is easy to have a track of the usage of information from a system. This means that it would be hard for anyone to use the information for the wrong purposes (Skiba, 2017). A potential risk for the same is the fact that in some of the cases, such as the case of patients who are too sick, it may be hard to coordinate the system with things that require the conscious of the individuals, such as consent on health procedures. Most Promising Healthcare Trends in Impacting Nursing Practice I believe the rise of Artificial Intelligence is the most promising healthcare trend in nursing practice for several reasons. Top in the list is the fact that these technology systems help in reducing the ongoing problem of nursing shortage (Dykes et al., 2017). Also, it is clear that developments in technology are likely to solve some of the problems that are currently associated with the technology to make it even more efficient. Description of how this Practice will Contribute to Improving Patient Care Outcomes, Data Management, and Efficiencies By reducing the problems associated with nursing shortage, it is clear that patient care outcomes are bound to improve at a great degree. Also, proper coordination of health information leads to reduced medical errors, which improves healthcare outcomes. Lastly, through these developments, it is easy to reduce the medical readmission rates in hospitals. References Barak-Corren, Y., Castro, V. M., Javitt, S., Hoffnagle, A. G., Dai, Y., Perlis, R. H., ... & Reis, B. Y. (2017). Predicting suicidal behavior from longitudinal electronic health records. American journal of psychiatry, 174(2), 154-162. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16010077 Cowie, M. R., Blomster, J. I., Curtis, L. H., Duclaux, S., Ford, I., Fritz, F., ... & Michel, A. (2017). Electronic health records to facilitate clinical research. Clinical Research in Cardiology, 106(1), 1-9. DOI: 10.1007/s00392-016-1025-6 Dykes, P. C., Rozenblum, R., Dalal, A., Massaro, A., Chang, F., Clements, M., Collins, S. …Bates, D. W. (2017). Prospective evaluation of a multifaceted intervention to improve outcomes in intensive care: The Promoting Respect and Ongoing Safety Through Patient Engagement Communication and Technology Study. Critical Care Medicine, 45(8), e806–e813. doi:10.1097/CCM.0000000000002449 Rao-Gupta, S., Kruger, D. Leak, L. D., Tieman, L. A., & Manworren, R. C. B. (2018). Leveraging interactive patient care technology to Improve pain management engagement. Pain Management Nursing, 19(3), 212–221. doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2017.11.002 Skiba, D. (2017). Evaluation tools to appraise social media and mobile applications. Informatics, 4(3), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics4030032

Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare

Written By: Dan Palmer, RN

Edited By: Ethan Green, MSN-FNP