How will the internet impact healthcare?

To answer the question “how will the internet impact healthcare,” first you have to ask, “why has the internet become indispensable?” Whether communicating with friends and family, trading goods and services, researching favorite topics, or enjoying music and other entertainment – the internet is simply a different delivery channel for the things we’ve all been doing, and still do, in other ways. But the internet introduces three critical advantages that make it so compelling –convenience, low cost and timeliness. I believe that these advantages can significantly benefit healthcare and strengthen the physician practice.

Effective healthcare delivery, beyond pharmaceuticals and devices, is contingent on ready access to accurate, timely information. The best healthcare information is of no value if it cannot be located, shared and applied. The value of information sharing and the idea of cooperative medicine are well known and appreciated. To effectively facilitate information sharing, and to provide a higher level of value and customer service, healthcare organizations are taking advantage of technologies that are convenient, timely and low cost – most importantly, the internet.

The basic premise of the internet is to enable people to quickly and easily access and share web-based information and tools in the form of applications. With pressure to be cost-effective, web-based ‘software as a service’ applications are growing in popularity, mainly because they require no expensive software or servers to buy or maintain, and the data that resides in these applications is available in a timely manner at the cost of a workstation loaded with a web browser. In addition, the information stored in these applications can be accessed from any computer in any location, by anyone with the required security access. Security has advanced to the point where data is effectively protected, and the risk of data being compromised is much lower than in the past.

One example of a web-based ‘software as a service’ healthcare application is Kardia Health Systems’ EIMS (Echocardiography Information Management System), a comprehensive echo lab workflow and reporting solution. EIMS supports data acquisition, diagnosis and interpretation, clinical reporting, patient scheduling, and coded billing within one application. EIMS facilitates ready access to patient records and enables physicians to review echo measurements and generate structured echo reports via a browser from any location. This is especially useful for cardiologists and sonographers working for multiple practices and from multiple locations. This web-based application provides one central location for patient data with permission-based access from a secure common data server set.

Internet-based healthcare information management has the potential to directly and positively impact the health of patients. Because the internet removes geographical restrictions, patients and healthcare institutions have access to qualified physicians, regardless of their location, and multiple practitioners can review the same data and can collaborate, thus providing the patient with a more knowledgeable diagnosis. And internet-based healthcare information management also improves the operational efficiencies of the practice. Convenient and ready access to up-to-date clinical information, patient records, and practice resource utilization data all contribute to the delivery of a higher level of customer service for a greater number of patients.

Healthcare organizations that embrace collaborative, location-independent, internet-based healthcare information management will be rewarded with loyal customers because they will deliver a better product. Ultimately, the advantages of convenience, low cost and timeliness delivered by the Internet enhance the health of patients and create a more rewarding patient/practitioner relationship.

The Expert

As CEO of Kardia Health Systems, Inc., Carl George provides managerial, financial, technical and logistical direction. He successfully founded and developed four software companies over the past twenty-five years. Operating across diverse industries, each of his companies demonstrates core capabilities in logistics and process redefinition within its respective industry.