Information systems in the health sector

World experts are optimistic about the adaptation of health organizations to the information society, especially the fact of how they will assimilate the change that accompanies new technologies.

On the one hand, the reengineering of processes, resistance to change, the quality of the content offered by the Internet, the accessibility of Health Services and changes in the doctor-patient relationship continue to be the axes around which the debate revolves. of the future of information technologies applied to Health, in developed countries.

On the other hand, the challenge of Information Systems is to respond to the need to manage different levels of information on Health; from personal Health records with access to sources of medical information of interest and virtual medical records, databases on diseases with information on practice and clinical trials; to basic global health knowledge data that can be disaggregated at the regional, national or international level with population, epidemiological information and information related to environmental factors, health indicators and efficiency measures, which allow making decisions in real time.

The process begins with the need to understand that an inevitable change is taking place, and then work on the need for institutions to adapt to the new situation and redesign their organizational processes, for which the participation of all professionals involved is necessary. in the sector, forming interdisciplinary groups trained to face a different environment.

Of course, making the effective implementation of Health Information Systems possible means overcoming various barriers or obstacles to their development. Some of these factors are inherent to the development of any technology and others are temporary and will be overcome with greater or lesser effort, according to the desire for change.

The main causes of slowdown that have been detected are the demand for security and confidentiality of data, the lack of equity in access to technology, the swing between two extremes: the saturation of information and difficulty in discerning its quality and usefulness for decision making or the absence of key data; the disorderly and inefficient spread of technology; the lack of coding, terminology and communication standards; insufficient education of professionals and patients; the lack of network access infrastructures; the lack of accreditation of the quality of the technologies, and the increase in costs. As pending subjects are the problems that these systems pose in the legal and security field, such as confidentiality,the transactional provision of services or the protection of systems.

Furthermore, it is necessary and urgently to break the myth that it is the technological deficiencies associated with economic variables and not the lack of information culture, which prevents the change from being implemented; since the development of small low-cost devices that allow any person to have the information they need at any time is a valid starting point for the integration of all Information Systems, as a way towards organizational excellence.

If there is one thing the experts agree on the application of Information Systems in the Health sector, it is in the opportunities they offer. When it is stated that "the information society constitutes a framework for solving problems in an innovative way using technologies to meet basic needs not yet solved in a traditional way", it must be understood in a concrete way that it will be especially effective in facilitating access to services of the most remote areas, improve ongoing training, enable the use of expert systems and promote remote monitoring through adequate knowledge management. Technologies will be more decisive the more they influence the variables with the greatest weight in care,such as the accessibility of services and the continuity of care between levels of care, especially in emergencies, due to the shortening of the times that it suggests. Furthermore, if the key is in access to information, the role of specialized portals will be fundamental to improve the training of professionals and increase the knowledge of citizens regarding Health Systems.

Having an Integrated Health System in place and in operation will allow a significant improvement in the use of health and information resources, facilitating access to better health for a wider segment of society, tending to include all citizens in the Health System.

Safety, efficiency, costs and satisfaction will have to be the keys to any evaluation and management control process. To these we must add the cost-benefit variable as a sign of its socio-economic impact. But it should not be forgotten during the process that the application of information and communication technologies in the Health Sector is very slow and the resistance to change of the different groups of health professionals and people involved, constitutes one of its main barriers that can only be avoided with adequate training, commitment to the task by all, and capable and effective leadership to carry out the change.