Aspects of the Computer-based Patient Record (Health Informatics)

One of the hottest political issues today concerns ways to improve national healthcare systems without incurring further costs. An extensive study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in the United States formally reported that computer-based patient records are absolutely necessary to help contain the cost explosion in health care. The information obtained from experts, the studies conducted, and the conclusions that went into the IOM's report have now been collected in Aspects of the Computer-Based Patient Record. A large portion of the volume discusses the state-of-the-art in existing computer-based systems as well as the essential needs which must be addressed by future computer-based patients' records. A final section in the book discusses implementation strategies for changing to the electronic system and practical issues: Who will bear the final cost? How and when will healthcare providers who use the system be trained? This volume contains the concise, valuable information which hospital administrators, hospital systems designers, third-party payer groups, and medical technology providers will need if they hope to successfully transit to hospital systems which use a computer-based patient record.