Information technology

Email this page to a friend

Want news about Information technology and more e-mailed to you? Click here for free email alerts

Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

The system is not set up, [but] information technology can make a difference," he explains. Asch notes that the Veterans Affairs system is already using upgraded information technology and "care has improved dramatically"— approximately two-thirds of veterans are now receiving the recommended care. "We wouldn't tolerate this in almost any other sector of society," he continues. "We wouldn't tolerate it if a pilot had to memorize his pre-flight checklist before he flew cross-country. It's a complicated thing to give medical care, and to do it right you need assistance." ..

The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts

The world is growing more and more dependent on information technology. Although it is a truism, if we fail to put in a modest effort to modernize, we will get left behind by the Zeitgeist. So challenge yourself to stay abreast of technology, and to obtain at least the minimum amount of knowledge necessary to be computer-literate. The Internet is a truly amazing social phenomenon and will continue to enrich our lives if we continue to grow with it. Do not be left behind!

I strongly urge the drug and health-care industry in general to enrich their business models by diversifying into the realm of information technology. Marketing products with clear consumer benefit will ultimately prove to be a more effective business plan than continuing to produce pills with only very modest benefit.

Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown David Steinman See book keywords and concepts

IBM, known for its information technology, has reduced energy consumption worldwide by 2 5 percent, through conservation, pocketing $527 million. "While some assume that cutting C02 emissions costs businesses money, we have found just the opposite. Addressing climate change makes business sense," said Wayne Balta, vice president for Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety. "We have saved more than one hundred million dollars since 1998 by conserving energy. When you consider the significant environmental benefits also achieved, cutting emissions is a win-win proposition.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer Devra Davis See book keywords and concepts

New medications and fast-paced information technology undoubtedly afford us the capacity to confront new ailments, like looming pandemics of bird flu, providing that governments don't lie or cover up early reports. But what about cancer? Can modern medicine, with its reliance on finding and treating diseases one at a time, alter the ways that the disease presents itself? We know how to cure relatively rare cancers, like those of children. We have made spectacular advances against many forms of the disease. That's why in the U.S. alone, there are more than 10 million cancer survivors.

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer Shannon Brownlee See book keywords and concepts

VHA primary care doctors are responsible for about fifteen hundred patients, at least five hundred fewer than the average internist or family physician.) Use information technology to improve coordination among doctors. Make hospitals and doctors accountable by measuring their performance and the outcomes of their patients. And finally, gather evidence for what works and what doesn't. We could call this strategy CARE, for coordination, accountability, electronic medical records, and evidence. While the tasks are clear, implementing CARE around the country won't be simple.

All the evidence suggests that these groups are more likely than doctors in solo practice or small groups to use evidence-based medicine and employ information technology to deliver more-effective care. Another model is the hospital chain that employs physicians. Intermountain Healthcare owns twenty-one hospitals and clinics and employs twenty-one thousand people, including its doctors. If every hospital in America achieved the same level of efficiency in caring for the chronically ill as Intermountain, Medicare would save more than ten billion dollars a year.

The doctors have implemented information technology to allow everyone involved in a patient's care to share medical records and support disease management. Pursuing Perfection has already improved the health of many patients. Rebecca Bryson suffers from both diabetes and congestive heart failure. Before enrolling in the program she was seeing fourteen different doctors and taking forty-two medications. When her lungs would fill with fluid from her congestive heart failure, she would call a doctor's office and tell the nurse what was happening.

Fewer than 1 o percent of hospitals in the country have instituted electronic medical records, and the health care industry as a whole spends less than 3 percent of its revenue on information technology, far less than the 10 percent that other information-intensive industries, like the airlines, spend. Some hospitals have put in systems only to pull the plug when doctors rebelled. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles, installed a thirty-four-million-dollar computerized physician ordering system to streamline drug prescriptions and reduce error rates.

The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts

The world is growing more and more dependent on information technology. Although it is a truism, if we fail to put in a modest effort to modernize, we will get left behind by the Zeitgeist. So challenge yourself to stay abreast of technology, and to obtain at least the minimum amount of knowledge necessary to be computer-literate. The Internet is a truly amazing social phenomenon and will continue to enrich our lives if we continue to grow with it. Do not be left behind!

Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

Asch notes that the Veterans Affairs system is already using upgraded information technology and "care has improved dramatically"— approximately two-thirds of veterans are now receiving the recommended care. "We wouldn't tolerate this in almost any other sector of society," he continues. "We wouldn't tolerate it if a pilot had to memorize his pre-flight checklist before he flew cross-country. It's a complicated thing to give medical care, and to do it right you need assistance." ..Q Visit the Agency for Healthcare Quality — and Research at www.ahrq.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Alex Steffen See book keywords and concepts

People aren't moving to rural America to take traditional jobs like farming and mining, but to find new types of jobs made possible by improvements in infrastructure and transportation: jobs in information technology, service, manufacturing, and distribution. Retirees are leading the way for these workers, swelling the population of rural retirement destinations that come with beautiful scenery and low-cost living. But there's a dark side to this migration—some of the newer jobs are in problematic industries: meat-processing plants and prisons are two growth industries in rural America.

Unless an NGO focuses on information technology, chances are its computers and networks are a hodgepodge of donated hardware and off-the-shelf commercial software (which may or may not be legally acquired) —and far too much time is spent on technology hassles. That's where the NGO in a Box program from the Tactical Technology Collective comes in. NGO-in-a-Box is a set of specially selected, high-quality free/open-source software chosen to meet the needs of NGOs.

Sergio Amadeu, the head of Brazil's National information technology Institute, says that access to technology is the first, not the last, step in development, that new technology is now fundamental to education, jobs, even democracy and good government all over the Global South. The cheapest way to obtain technology is to invest in open, collaborative, noncommercial systems.

And when they do, we will have on our desk a machine that connects us to the world through information technology; that links us to a cycle of manufacturing that spews very little waste and reabsorbs what it does release; that is put out by companies mindful of the people who make their computers and, more important still, the people who take them apart—and all in a product that is lighter, sleeker, and more elegant than any we've seen yet.

It is already a major part of the mainstream information technology economy, and it increasingly dominates aspects of that economy that will probably be the leading edge over the next decade." Open source, he argues, is more than software —it's a way of organizing production so that it can be used for works for public good, and that is definitely worldchanging. The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond (O'Reilly Media, 2001) Available as a free download at http://catb.

Rising popularity of medical tourism reveals deterioration of U.S. healthcare system Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

As jobs were lost overseas in the information technology, accounting and technical support industries, people thought, "Well, that's manageable, but no one will go overseas to have medical care." It turns out they were wrong. People will go overseas to get better medical care or a better value on surgical procedures, and the popularity of medical tourism is proving that. What it could mean long term is a further deterioration of the U.S. healthcare system.

Where's the health in health care reform? Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

To drive this point home, America used to be number one in a lot of things: We used to be number one in information technology and computer programming. We used to be number one in science and math. You know what we're number one in today? Mental illness. We are the best in the world at driving our population mad. That's right, mental illness – number one in the world; no one comes close to us. We're also number one in obesity. Here in the U.S., we poisoned an entire generation with fast food, sugars and hydrogenated oils. We made sure they never got good nutrition.

Put an end to spam and phishing by reforming email Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

We can move on as a society, living in a world where the information technology infrastructure is more secure and more trusted, and we can experience all of the efficiencies of technology and communication that go along with that. That is the path I think we must choose as a society. It has taken too long to get these big companies to sit down and agree to things.

Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda Jacky Law See book keywords and concepts

In no other area in which science has transformed our lives, is its authority subject to such variance in how it is applied in daily life. information technology, for example, requires people to adapt to the protocols of the computer if they want the benefits, which are pretty standard. But they don't have to believe in either the Dell dealer or the underlying technology for it to work. With medicine, people do have to buy in at some level to the promise of what it purports to do, and the effects are far from standard.

Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies Greg Critser See book keywords and concepts

He often explained it to visiting analysts and journalists by rendering a version of a conversation he had with his mother: "Suddenly information technology was so essential that we realized we are an information company more than we are a pill company. Because it's the software — all the research, networking, marketing — that's important in that pill. The pill is a piece of software! I mean, when my mother would ask, 'Why is that pill so expensive?' I would say, 'But, Ma, it's not the pill that costs so much, it's the software!'

Reinheriting the Earth: Awakening to Sustainable Solutions and Greater Truths Brian O'Leary See book keywords and concepts

I believe that electronic information technology", wrote psychologist Ralph Metzner, "is only the latest, most abstract, expression of the mechanistic, technological mindset and does not represent a real shift in values, such as ecology and the environmental crisis demand."15 "The philosophy of deep ecology," Metzner continues, "teaches biocentric or ecocentric values, in which humans are seen as part of nature, not over or against it....

Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele See book keywords and concepts

To reduce medical errors dramatically, the council could oversee creation and operation of a single information technology system that links all health care players—hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies, and nursing homes. Deaths caused by an error in one hospital or nursing home could be identified and corrective steps initiated before the error recurs in other facilities. Patient records would be stored electronically. Prescriptions would be computer-generated. It would help ensure correct dosages and preclude the dispensing of drugs with harmful interactions.

Instead, he intended to spend millions to build a state-of-the-art computer system and employ the latest information technology that would track quality control and patient satisfaction. KPC would even have its own Web site so patients could make their appointments over the Internet. Nevet mind that many had no access to the Internet. When doctors continued to complain about the phones and general working conditions, he seemed annoyed. One recalled Dr. Chaudhuri saying: "Why do you only give me bad news?" KPC continued to unravel.

As for the insurers, it's going to get even better, thanks to the information technology revolution. The next health care work expected to move offshore, notably, again, to India: the reading of mammograms, X-rays, and MRIs. Madison Avenue Med ach year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducts a nationwide survey on the medical well-being of the American people. The 2003 study, like the ones before it, showed that most of us think we are in good health. In fact, 35.5 percent of those questioned assessed their health as "excellent," and another 31.

A white paper by the information technology Association of America (ITAA) says that " [Health care] industry fragmentation represents a significant barrier to the widespread adoption of IT networks. The diversity of participants in the health care industry and the complexity of their relationships with each other have frustrated the voluntary adoption of industry standards." Doctors and hospitals deal with the consequences of this every day. For them, it means spending more time and money on administration and paperwork, and less time on patients.

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System J.D. Kleinke See book keywords and concepts

It grates on all those who passionately believe that better information technology, statistical analysis, care guidelines, operations research methods, and more sophisticated financial and legal mechanisms will fix what is wrong with our health care system. Collectively, we have invested billions of hard dollars and working hours in businesses to mobilize all these things in the service of medicine. My own personal struggle with this may be summarized perfectly in a quote by Leo Tolstoy.

Making Them Pay: How to Get the Most from Health Insurance and Managed Care Rhonda D. Orin See book keywords and concepts

My apologies to all information technology specialists. The book was written in 1962, long before anyone even imagined your profession.) IT creates a "perfect" world, where everyone obeys the "Manual," examiners keep order, and the only thing lacking is humanity. IT comes close to destroying the warmhearted little family that the book is about. It reminds me, at times, of health insurers. Here's a secret—in certain respects, health insurers and HMOs are nothing more than computers. At least at the lower levels, most of the people who work there are interchangeable. The computers control.

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System J.D. Kleinke See book keywords and concepts

No amount of media outrage, political grandstanding, or public pronouncements—nor any of the numbingly familiar, self-serving managed care or information technology solutions—will ever fix this problem. The IOM's findings may have shocked the nation, but they came as little surprise to people who actually understand medicine. As Dr. Nuland noted in his analysis of the study, "With so many steps and so many people involved in every aspect of care, the possibilities for error multiply, and small lapses quickly escalate into major events and occasionally into tragedies.

Although generally supportive of many of the arguments I presented in the book, he was forcefully critical of my chapter on industrialization—my lengthy technical sermon on the promises of information technology and data analysis to reduce variations and unpredictability in medical care. In his e-mail, Dr. Cook introduced me to complexity theory. He wrote that this arcane and intriguing science was especially relevant to the realities of the clinic, and explained why medicine resisted the types of activities and efforts I was celebrating in my book (John Cook III, e-mail to the author, Sept.

page 1 of 2 | Next ->

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalNews.com/np/index.html

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.