Future Advances in Health Management Information Systems (HMIS)

Introduction

Over the years, Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) have come to represent an integral segment in health care benefiting both patients and practitioners alike. It contains interrelating components which ensure the collection of data from the secondary levels and transforming it into information. Here, a conceptual level provides analysis and feedback mechanisms that aid in making informed decisions that are for the benefit of all those involved. Many healthcare centers use it in the collection of routine data that would help them in storing information relating to costs, patients, the performance of personnel, medical conditions, specific diseases and the use of medicine in the facilities.

Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) offer efficient management of healthcare data and patient information to deliver quality care and treatment (Organisation Mondiale de la sante, 2004). Over the years, the evolution of these systems has seen a steady shift from paper-based strategies and becoming more electronically driven. Presently, it plays a significant role in the successful execution of electronic health records (EHR) while ensuring that the providers, patients, and healthcare organizations have access to the right information.

Prospects for future advances in Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) are a necessity if one expects quality care. One such prospect is the use of cloud computing that these institutions can access from various devices. In this essay, I will discuss the future of healthcare regarding improvements that cloud computing might bring together with the potential challenges that it may pose.

Cloud computing is a paradigm in information technology that enables the ubiquitous access to tools that the system shares with a host of configurable resources such as servers, services, computer networks, and applications. It involves little management effort and can be done easily over the internet allowing the users to store and process significant amounts of data privately or on a third party server. Cloud computing depends on the sharing of resources to achieve an economy of scale and coherence that is similar to a utility. Cloud computing allows a facility to minimize its up-front information technology (IT) infrastructure costs while at the same time enabling its the available applications to be up and running within a short period.

The rise of cloud computing in the health sector is due to the development of high-capacity networks, service-oriented architecture, utility computing and hardware virtualization. In 2016 alone, the world was able to produce data that was equal to 120,000 times that recorded in written history (In Moumtzoglou & In Kastania, 2014). The need for a more exponential and robust computing culture, especially in the health sector has seen a rise in cloud computing. The cloud is important in health care as it allows collaboration in the healthcare industry.

Here, professionals can store and access their data remotely, thus enabling them to gain access to patient information from any corner of the world. Remote conferencing also allows practitioners to gain access to healthcare updates and the condition of their patients. Moreover, it comes in handy during times of disaster when patient records are lost (Kshetri, Fredriksson & Rojas, 2017). Cloud computing acts as a backup in such a case and enables those involved to collect the necessary information needed during such occasions.

Hospitals are also able to get better storage at a lower cost making it possible to work with software-defined storage affordable. It also allows administrators to use of big data to accurately and or the doctors involved to assess the ailments accurately. Storing the data in the cloud also speeds up the research process as it allows for quick compilation and sharing of pertinent data. Such advances allow improvement in the acre that is being given and coming up with a cure for a particular disease. The main challenge that most healthcare facilities face in employing the use of cloud computing is the lack of trust in privacy, data security, loss of governance and organizational inertia. Many potential customers of this technology resist it due to their lack of confidence in it. Concerns often arise when mission-critical applications move into this paradigm which also contains sensitive data.

The providers cannot guarantee privacy controls or the effectiveness of the security system that is in use. The use of modern tools also proves difficult for organizations that seek to bridge a gap that exists in the integration that is present. Many facilities find this quite challenging and often attempt to reuse technology from the past or ground up approach rather than integrate them with the new protocols (Tan, Payton & Tan, 2010). In using traditional healthcare applications, individual servers situated in the hospital need to be in use.

The amount of disk, resources, and CPU for the requests is huge and as a result, reduces the efficiency. It is also vital to note that cloud data centers are always scalable, which means that millions of transactions take place there hence the need to stay up always. Most healthcare facilities and administrators thus increasingly find it difficult to monitor all these interfaces at once as it proves quite costly for them. It is for this reason that exerts advice organizations who are intent on using the cloud first to scale up on their efficiency as this would enable them to provide their visibility in many other feeds.

Cloud computing also affects the flexibility due to its idea of everyone having to adhere to the same standard. As a result, many organizations find it challenging to handle at that it is in HL7or alternatively mapping XML information on-the-fly. The more efficiently hospitals can receive or send data in SSL version to HTTPS the higher the chances that the method in use will be secure in the analysis of data and its presentation (Soman, 2011).

Digital equity also becomes an issue in the use of cloud computing as not all parties involved have access to tools that this system requires. As a result, it is less inclusive of all the main players who are not an efficient way to deal with issues relating to health care. The evolution of Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) is as a result of an increasing need for the healthcare system to store patient data and enable the caregivers together with administrators to have quick access to information. A future advance that could be taking over Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) in optimizing resources and in essence ushering a new era of significant innovations.

Did you like this example?

1489

78