His speech on Thursday at the opening of the two-day Advances in
Health Informatics Conference was one of a number of presentations by
doctors and researchers on how IT can improve patient outcomes.
The conference led off with former Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave
Williams, now chief executive officer and assistant professor of
surgery at Ontario Southlake Regional Health Centre, the informatics of
the saying health the is truly disruptive, the revolutionary change
that will change the way we deliver health care.
By giving patients electronically-collected data about themselves,
clinicians can empower them to monitor their health through exercise
and better diet, he said.
Companies are already making or experimenting with Band-aid-sized
digital monitors or tiny radio transmitters that can be swallowed that
wirelessly transmit vital signs, giving clinicians a wealth of data.
Much of that should be accessed by patients through online portals, he
said.
the I am totally convinced this type of diagnostic technology will
totally revolutionize way think of managing patients from an in-patient
to an out-patient basis.
Meanwhile hospital patient ID wrist straps with bar codes or RFID
tags will help cut into the estimated billions of dollars in medical
identification and prescription errors, he said.
On the other hand, Williams acknowledged that not every medical IT
idea will work. Early in his career he tried to develop a
voice-activated electronic medical record for emergency
departments.Intelligent Bandwidth for Emerging Networks The convergence
of E1 voice data mux
the I failed remarkably because technology wasn T ready, he said.