Case: IT in health care

What are some of the benefits afforded to organizations implementing voice recognition technologies in these settings? How can you quantify these benefits to access the value of the investment? Provide several examples from the case.

These is no margin for error when working in a health care setting. How would you go about implementing these technologies in this high-risk environment? What precautions or approaches would you take to minimize these risks? Develop some recommendations.

It is true that health care settings must be free of any errors because the physical and mental safety of the patients is involved here. The first use of technology that I see helping in the health care sector is the voice recognition and recording technology. Usually, it takes a lot of effort to take notes and at the same time provide treatment to the patients. With voice recording, note taking becomes less challenging and the probability of errors in note taking is also minimized because the health care practitioners can set relax and take notes from the voice recordings with easy and attention.

Technology in the form of augmented reality is also helping doctors learn more productively from the written material coupled with computer augmented images of different human parts. I think that augmented reality techniques can be utilized to let the doctors practice more efficiently during their student days and get a more comprehensive look at human anatomy and physiology. This will help in reducing risks in the practical field of health care. It is also necessary to update all technologies as soon as updates are available in the health care because we live in a rapidly technologically advancing age.

Second Point of View

Implementing the new technology discussed in the article comes with risks and rewards.  I am a retired service member who worked in the medical field for twenty years.  I remember the implementation of AHLTA and potential of Dragon Speak when I was in the service.  My department had no option with AHLTA but did pass on Dragon Speak because we did not feel the voice recognition technology was good enough at that time which was around when the first iPhone was released.  I am sure it has improved significantly by now.  Implementing AHLTA required an assessment of the current IT structure and improvements that were needed.  Backup processes needed to be evaluated in case of AHLTA downtime which was significant during the beginning.  Training for the current IT contractors to maintain the system was also needed.  AHLTA was meant to give efficient use and accessibility to medical records as military members and their families moved to different locations to include other service bases.  This meant testing the interoperability of the system to be used across all military health facilities in various locations.

Implementing a new technology of this magnitude would mean assessing the current IT infrastructure to see if it can handle the upgrade and what upgrades are needed to the current system.  Evaluating security and storage of the records as well as the compatibility with the current systems and programs in use.  Testing the system in smaller military health care facilities and evaluating the implementation, maintenance, and ease of use among staff members.  Training for the current IT contractor would need to be scheduled ahead to give adequate time for the IT contractor to be proficient.  Because of the critical nature of health records, I would require a dedicated employee from the software company to work in and alongside the IT team of every major military health care facility to serve as subject matter experts and to assist as needed.  Smaller and remote locations can be handled through a regional help desk.  Most of all, informing providers and medical staff about the upgrade in advance to allow for feedback and transition.  We heard of the AHLTA upgrade for years before it was actually used in a facility.