Health Information Technology

Health Information Technology

Health information technology (HIT) provides the umbrella framework to describe the comprehensive management of health information across computerized systems and its secure exchange between consumers, providers, government and quality entities, and insurers. Health information technology (HIT) is in general increasingly viewed as the most promising tool for improving the overall quality, safety and efficiency of the health delivery system (Chaudhry et al., 2006). Broad and consistent utilization of HIT will:

• Improve health care quality or effectiveness;
• Increase health care productivity or efficiency;
• Prevent medical errors and increase health care accuracy and procedural correctness;
• Reduce health care costs;
• Increase administrative efficiencies and healthcare work processes;
• Decrease paperwork and unproductive or idle work time;
• Extend real-time communications of health informatics among health care professionals; and
• Expand access to affordable care.

Interoperable HIT will improve individual patient care, but it will also bring many public health benefits including:

• Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks around the country;
• Improved tracking of chronic disease management; and
• Evaluation of health care based on value enabled by the collection of de-identified price and quality information that can be compared.