1. Patient Accounts and Patient Portals. Get your patients more involved with their appointments, physicians, medical history, and bills. But do it securely.
2. Electronic Prescribing Software. Connecting doctor to patient to pharmacist has never been easier. Creating, distributing, and managing electronic prescriptions is a new tool for many hospitals and those in HIT.
3. Social Media. From large scale hospitals to private practices, the ability to reach a large audience is looked upon more and more favorably by doctors and other healthcare workers. Managing access and security is the HIT team’s task.
4. The Cloud. It seems like we bring it up in every article that concerns HIT, and maybe we do. But we do it because it’s that important! Your HIT team, doctors, healthcare providers,
vendors, and basically everybody needs to understand the cloud and its uses and limitations in HIT.
5. Security, Breaches, and Data Encryption. Toward the end of 2013, everyone predicted that patient data breaches and subsequent response to those breaches would be a major story in the upcoming year. 2014 delivered. Techniques in data encryption and patient data security are paramount for your HIT team.
6. Patient Engagement Apps. While you may not be the creator of one of these, you will probably be asked about them, and if they make sense in your hospital’s IT infrastructure. Patient engagement apps range from apps meant to spark healthy eating habits, to pill recognition software that allows patients to remember which pills they have or have not taken simply by taking a photo of their prescription.
7. Telehealth. Every debate in your HIT department will have an effect on your adoption and management of Telehealth. Telehealth, or remote healthcare, is a tool that comes with a lot of other tools. Get ready.
