Patients' Perspective of IT and Quality of Care

A few of my readers have asked me to be slightly less “technical” in my writing as some of the material seemed too arcane for some readers who are non-medical or non-information technology savvy. In the light of this, I have decided to make this post a little less technical and address it to a broader audience.

What I will like to discuss this time, is essentially quality control and information technology from the perspective of a patient and not from the angle of the technicians or service providers. I want to make a case for the importance of the uptake of information technology in every sphere of the health care value chain. By this term, I mean the entire gamut of patient care from the time the patient gets sick to the time he/ she comes in contact with the service provider until the time he/she is discharged.  All the transactions that take place during this interaction are important and as we know, it affects the final outcome: basically whether the patient gets well completely, his/her condition is managed properly such that they can live comfortably with the complications or the patient gets worse (hopefully not) or dies (heaven forbid!).

Source: iStockPhoto

Every contact with care providers is thus important for the patient and also for the provider in many ways. Every patient is an opportunity for the medical personnel- nurses, doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists, etc to learn about the case and get better- this is the idea behind teaching hospitals. In addition, every patient is a unique source of data. Even though this might sound strange to some readers, it is very true. From preventive health interventions to the first time the patient comes in, the patient supplies data- about time of entry, presenting complaint, diagnosis, drug interactions, drug efficacy, efficacy of medical interventions, infection control… the list is virtually endless. The data collected can then be utilized to improve medical processes and care for patients.

Despite these however, the average patient does not care for the various terminologies, but basically about this: “help me get well, with effective but inexpensive medical care that will help me have a better quality of life”. To the trained eye, the statement is very complicated as there is an entire range of arguable definitions like, how do you define “humane treatment”, “inexpensive”, “quality of life” etc. To the patient however, it is simple.

We will explore this through the hypothetical experiences of two patients in two different contexts: Oleg in Omsk, Russia and Sama in Bombay, India.

I will tell you their story in the next few posts.