I had originally intended to write today's posting on the upcoming Health and Human Services department conference regarding personal health records, when I realized that it might be best to get some fundamental definitions and explanations up here so that those with less specialized understandings can follow along and participate!
HHS describes Health Information Technology as:
HHS describes Health Information Technology as:
"... the tangible technical aspects of a health information system, including network backbones such as the Internet in its present and future versions; the World Wide Web, wireless connections, hardware, Internet appliances, and handheld devices, as well as applications for information management, decision-support tools, communication, and transactional programs. Also involved are technical capabilities in areas such as bandwidth and latency." (http://www.healthit.hhs.gov/)
In more practical terms, HIT revolves around the modern computerized medical record and information networks that are fast becoming the back bone of healthcare services in this nation, and the federal and state regulations that oversee these records and systems. Health IT enables health care providers to manage patient care and service through the use of secure systems which allow the rapid sharing of a patient's health information between individual care providers and healthcare department/facilities. While Health IT includes the use of electronic health records (EHRs - .pdf) it also covers the integration of paper medical records into today's computerized management systems to maintain people's health information.
Early on, one of the major federal regulations to impact health records in general, but the HIT field in particular, was the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or what is most popularly known by its acronym as: "HIPAA." I have touched upon some of the HIPAA issues in my initial post and will (undoubtedly) address more in the future, but in conjunction with understanding what Health IT is all about, it is important to understand that HIPAA is one of the foundational pieces of legislation that guided the formation and distinctions that separate Health IT from more general business and corporate Information Technology concerns and issues.
Over the coming weeks, I'll mix in a few definitional and basic concept explanation posts while keeping abreast of new devlopments and happenings in the field, to help everyone keep up to speed on the issues being discussed.
Early on, one of the major federal regulations to impact health records in general, but the HIT field in particular, was the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or what is most popularly known by its acronym as: "HIPAA." I have touched upon some of the HIPAA issues in my initial post and will (undoubtedly) address more in the future, but in conjunction with understanding what Health IT is all about, it is important to understand that HIPAA is one of the foundational pieces of legislation that guided the formation and distinctions that separate Health IT from more general business and corporate Information Technology concerns and issues.
Over the coming weeks, I'll mix in a few definitional and basic concept explanation posts while keeping abreast of new devlopments and happenings in the field, to help everyone keep up to speed on the issues being discussed.
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