Healthcare is one of the most important services provided to people, as the need to be healthy is shared by all humans. It is crucial that healthcare management keeps improving with the introduction of new technology. The implementation of IT in health services has been a work in progress for a few decades now, with the latest solutions being introduced. One of the aspects of using new technology in medicine is HIT service management, which is a process of establishing a framework for IT-related systems and activities, with the aim of more efficient use.
The two major components of HIT service management are incident management and problem management. The former is mainly focused on restoring the operation of IT services after a malfunction, the latter, on determining and preventing the potential causes for incidents (De la Cruze, 2019). These are some of the most important aspects, particularly for the healthcare system, as any problems and mistakes might cause serious harm to the well-being of patients, and might hinder the work of health professionals.
IT enterprise architecture is also a factor for consideration. It is hard to narrowly define the term, but it generally refers to a process aimed at boosting the performance of IT technology, while lowering the expenses of its use. Enterprise architecture can be used to help the healthcare industry by creating new operating models and helping apply new initiatives aimed at improving public health, such as population health, health information exchanges, health analytics, and medical neighborhood models. The opinions on the effectiveness of this process are mixed, with some saying that it improves the performance of HIT systems and makes controlling expenses easier, as well as manages the possible risks (University of Jyväskylä, 2017). The critics, on the other hand, state that enterprise architecture is often mismanaged and reactive, instead of proactive, creating temporary solutions to arising problems (Markwell, 2014). The best way of using this process to benefit the healthcare system is to be determined.
Speaking of HIT service management, one should also discuss the emerging trends for the industry. It is speculated that in the coming years, more healthcare organizations will implement the IoT in their work, with the aim of reducing costs and improving the quality of patient care (HITInfrastructure, 2017). The strategies for increasing the computing power to use artificial intelligence are also being discussed (HITInfrastructure, 2017). The intended goal is to make use of large amounts of collected patient data.
References
De la Cruze, L. (2019). Healthcare IT: Why ITIL best practices are critical to success. Cherwell Software.
HITInfrastructure. (2017). Top 5 health IT infrastructure trends to watch in 2018. Web.
Markwell, A. (2014). The problems with enterprise architecture. LinkedIn.
University of Jyväskylä. (2017) Enterprise architecture in healthcare v2.0.