Data Revolution in Healthcare and Lifesciences Industry

Improve Process: 1. Define the problem - that is wait time and the high number of non-emergency patients 2. Develop a solution - in an emergency room situation, this can include adding beds by expanding the department or decreasing the size of current rooms; outsourcing certain testing and radiology services; and/or adding an ‘express care’ program to deal with non-emergency patients 3. Form a plan for improving the process, measuring improvements to the process, and reducing deviations from the goal - many hospitals have found that Lean Six Sigma practices are a particularly effective way of identifying and dealing with the challenges and problems inherent to health care . How Six Sigma help reduce Medical Errors: Six Sigma is a process improvement method that focuses on eliminating defects by reducing variation. It relies heavily on statistical analysis of data and strong problem-solving techniques. For more than a decade, companies such as GE, Motorola and Toshiba have used Six S...

What is a smart card and how is it used? A smart card is a card similar in size to today's plastic payment card that has a chip embedded in it. By adding a chip to the card, it becomes a smart card with the power to serve many different uses. As an access-control device, smart cards make personal and business data available only to the appropriate users. Another application provides users with the ability to make a purchase or exchange value. Smart cards provide data portability, security and convenience. Smart cards help businesses evolve and expand their products and services in a changing global marketplace. Banks, telecommunications, computer software and hardware companies, and airlines all have the opportunity to tailor their card products and services to better differentiate their offerings and brands. The combination of applications available on smart cards also may help them to develop closer relationships with their customers. What is the potential for the smart card busi...

Recently received a mail from one of my Friends Senthil asking more about smart cards and their implementation in Indian Health care Scenario. Here I am describing the use of smart cards with the technology that is usually deployed for the same. Components of Smart card System SMART CARDS CARD READERS CLIENT SOFTWARE SERVERS WITH HARDWARE SECURITY ADMINISTRATOR PORTAL WEBSITE PATIENT PORTAL WEBSITE CAREGIVER PORTAL WEBSITE PDA & LAPTOP SOFTWARE . VISUAL BASIC & .NET TOOLS HL7 MESSAGING SERVER What all these components do? SMART CARDS - Securely hold patient information. CARD READERS - Work with any PC and are branded with your logo. CLIENT SOFTWARE -Upgrades the web browser on the PC so it works with smart cards and card readers SERVERS WITH HARDWARE SECURITY - Host and protect private information. ADMINISTRATOR PORTAL WEBSITE - A web application that lets administrators issue and manage cards. PATIENT PORTAL WEBSITE - A web application where patients view and update their in...

Defining e-health - where are we? E-health is health's version of e-commerce: that is, conducting health business electronically. E-health is the combined use of electronic communication and IT in the health sector, both at the local site and at a distance for clinical, educational and administrative purposes (Unstoppable rise of e-health, 1999). E-health is a broad, encompassing term that envelops information technologies and telecommunication technologies. Telehealth, the provision of health at a distance using telecommunications, is subsumed by e-health. Unfortunately there is a lot of confusion about this new field and some vendors are getting onto the hype bandwagon by adding "e-" to old solutions. Many new initiatives remain unproven, and, like modern art, time will tell which shall endure. Users' strategic goals and end users' needs should drive solutions and not the vendors or suppliers’ business models. However, sometimes the users' needs are latent a...

To understand the Barriers Better, Am sharing with you various Case Studies for the Same. The first case study involved a company that was primarily in the business of selling prescription drugs online. This was a pure Internet startup, rather than an existing pharmacy that added an online channel. ePharmacy focuses exclusively on the sale of (1) prescription pharmaceuticals, (2) over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals, (3) vitamins, minerals, supplements (VMS) and herbal products and (4) related healthcare products. The Company has invested over $10 million in state-of-the-art technology and facilities including fully automated pharmaceutical dispensing equipment that enables the company to fulfil customer orders rapidly upon receipt of the order via the Internet. ePharmacy began selling OTC pharmaceuticals and other healthcare products through its website in May 1999 and began sales of prescription drugs and providing healthcare information in late October 1999. With respect to prescr...