A Management and Information Perspective on Healthcare - The Coming Revolution
(
Page 6 of 6 )
Beyond this, however, lies the revolution. Using IBM’s Blue Gene
supercomputer, the clinic will mine all patient data, transcribed
doctors’ notes, outside databases, outside research and gene and
protein knowledge to put right in front of the doctor everything that
should be known about a patient. What has been learned from other
patients and what is being discovered in the labs will be right there.
You won’t have to print out articles from the Internet and carry them
to your doctor any longer! It can take 17 years for new research to
make it into a doctor’s office today. Not anymore.
Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest HMO, which serves 8.2 million
patients, is moving down a similar path. One of the new things these
systems offer is the ability of the patient to see his or her own
medical records, make appointments online, get reminders for drug
refills and appointments, and see test results. This gives the patient
more involvement in his or her own care and is likely to make them a
better patient.
Dr. Robert Pearl is Executive Director and CEO of The Permanente
Medical Group in Northern California. His advocacy of electronic
medical records flows from personal experience. A few years ago his
father, who lived half the year in New York and half in Florida, had
his spleen removed. His doctors in both places were excellent. But each
assumed the other had administered a post-operative vaccine that is
common after these surgeries. One day at Dr. Pearl’s home in California
he found his father on the floor. He had succumbed to pneumococcal
septicemia.
“He died because medical care has become incredibly complex and
because as a nation we have not devoted enough attention to
implementing electronic medical record systems and other methods to
ensure patient safety," Dr. Pearl wrote.
One of his father’s physicians, Dr. Pearl has said, relied on his
father to remember what medications he was on. His father kept a list
on a worn piece of paper in his pocket.
**The above article is adopted from the author's book, Sustained Innovation.
___________________________________________________________________
Faisal Hoque is an internationally known entrepreneur and author,
and the founder and CEO of BTM Corporation (www.btmcorporation.com).
His previous books include Sustained Innovation and Winning The
3-Legged Race. BTM innovates business models and enhances financial
performance by converging business and technology with its products and
intellectual property.
© 2009 Faisal Hoque | info@btmcorporation.com
test
/ 47 
Health Care 
