Conor Stewart
Research expert covering health & pharmaceuticals in the UK & Europe
The role of information technology in healthcare has been increasingly important in recent years. IT is the use of telecommunications and computers to retrieve and share information, so IT in healthcare refers to the use of this technology to manage health-related data. The most common examples of healthcare IT are electronic health/medical records (EHRs/EMRs), e-prescriptions, and tech tools that help patients meet goals such as managing blood sugar levels or quitting smoking. Furthermore, IT in healthcare has been promoted as a route to giving patients more control over their health because of the availability of various mobile apps and information platforms.
Use of EHRS
The terms electronic health records and electronic medical records are used interchangeably, but they are both defined as the storing of a patient's health information and history in a digital format. The use of electronic health records still varies across countries; however, the use is in general far higher in highly-developed economies. For example in New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, almost every primary care physician used EHRs as of 2019. Across the whole of Europe, the average EHR use among doctors stood at 81 percent, while in the United States, EHR usage was 92 percent in 2018. This has represented a huge increase in the utilization of this technology over the past 15 years. Worldwide, the total EHR market was forecast to reach around 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2024.Challenges and cybersecurity
The digitalization of healthcare, which has been increasing in recent years, has opened up further risks for healthcare providers via hacking attempts and data breaches. In 2020, over 500 entities were involved in healthcare data breaches in the United States, the largest of which affected over 3.3 million people at Trinity Health, a Michigan-based provider, exposing patient and donor information. Over a third of healthcare organizations that had experienced a cybersecurity incident in 2020 reported it had no impact on their operations, however, 15 percent indicated the incident caused disruptions of systems and devices which affected their ability to provide clinical care. Further challenges for the implementation of fully functional eHealth systems in healthcare include funding and sourcing sufficiently skilled employees to work with the technology.
