Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Health Care

Health care sector’s performance had been an inquisitive factor the kind of challenges it has faced, since its shape up as a sector. Health care is one of the sectors being directly linked to the national well being, has always been in the attention of the stakeholders.

However, the performance has always been suboptimal despite of efforts, which can be attributed to the political instability, economic conditions, Regulations on the investment portfolios, and other intrinsic factors which create a volatile environment in the company.

Despite of having huge budget allocations from the government towards improving the infrastructure and better facilities to the organization, there is a kind of severity which is seen in the form of glitches towards effective utilization of the scope. However when we see the positives of the sector, there is tremendous change which has come in the recent past.

There is a plethora of changes which has taken place in the way the technology is adapted by the companies in the health care industry. Unlike yesteryears where there is the issue of resource management, today the technology utilization is taking place in the health care industry in a very optimal manner.

Usage of Information and technology has been in many aspects of health care industry. Health Care Institutions started using advanced technologies towards medical diagnosis, surgical and non-surgical treatments too. In the earlier days, for a small surgical treatment, a patient had to undergo hospitalization for two-three days, today however, there are many surgical treatments for which the patient had to be hospitalized for one day only.

Diagnosis of ailments is one area, where the technological advancements have made a ocean change. Today in a very short time, doctors are able to identify the accurate issues of ailments and provide the treatments very effectively.

The other area of health care where the foray of ICT is seen is the CRM process. When once a customer is entering a health care institution, they ensure to maintain all the records for future in a digital way, and create a hassle free environment to the customers. One of the major leverage which the customers of the health care industry is finding is, the way the process of medical reimbursement claims are settled, the cash less hospitalization process, etc which is very effective.

Few of the companies have started delivering the services of ecommerce enabled health care services, by giving medical consultation online, maintaining of medical records online and other such resourceful developments. Amidst of all these developments one of the serious concerns is that this such technological leverage has to be taken to the rural sectors also, where still the facilities are far from the basics.

If there can be a concrete effort from all the stakeholders of the industry, to make use of ICT and provide state of art health care facilities to the rural areas that can be a significant contribution to the societal development and its welfare.