The presentation by David Smith, Nicole Sowers, and Scott Randall on Champ Software and Nightingale notes is an outstanding demonstration of how a team can take on the challenging task of modernizing health information systems. The most interesting part was about Minnesota’s success story, which implemented the software for the year 2015, and reported that the state saved $2200000, and the latter sum was provided as a reward in order to reinvest into further improvements (Smith et al., 2020). In other words, the case shows a significant improvement in operational efficiency, where inputted data can be acquired in a wide range of forms on the basis of a need or specific demand. Therefore, no human is required to spend his or her effort on revisiting the collected data and building a new report form or trying to cram the information into old templates. The software successfully automated the given process, which helped healthcare workers to be focused on healthcare delivery itself rather than health information management.
If I could talk with these presenters, I would ask about the use of Amazon’s AWS as a place for servers. I am interested in whether or not there are some regulations or rules, which oversee or even restrict the use of private party servers to store sensitive information. Since the software is mostly cloud-based, which eliminates the problem of relying on a single hardware, concerns might arise about Amazon’s integrity in not using the health information on its servers. In addition, I would also ask about the states, which are most resistant to healthcare modifications. Specifically, I would like to know whether or not there are some federal interventions and authorities, which could influence such a resistance. During the integration of novel health information solutions, in addition to positive effects, there are also negative ones, and one of the essential problems include cybercrime. Therefore, security systems are mandatory and necessary, and it is important that users have the opportunity to combat the situations that may occur as a result of cyber-attacks. The purpose of these security measures is to ensure the maximum safety of patients at digitalization in medicine. Thus, it is interesting how the responsibility of data security will be shared between AWS, healthcare organizations, and software providers.
Moreover, the user interface is simple and easy to learn, but more web design features could be added, such as adding contrasting colors and more intuitive design. For example, when it comes to the COVID-19 contact tracing tool, it is evidently better and more effective than Excel spreadsheets used by healthcare agencies and facilities (Smith et al., 2020). However, an already contacted person might be greenlighted instead of changing to italics, which would be more visible and comprehensive in a stressful hospital environment.
Analyzing the process of introducing software technologies in health care, it can be said that there are more transparent processes due to these novel enhancements of medicine, and such modifications significantly improve the relationship between health staff and their patients. In addition, the quality of service provision and their speed increase, which also entails a positive effect. However, a mere implementation of IT technologies will not give the desired result without two important elements. The first is to conduct the integration in conjunction with the implementation of the concept of lean manufacturing, which promotes efficient use of resources minimizing damages, and maximizing profits. The second is a stricter and thorough selection of software developers since the implementation process might not always be practical. In order to carry out such selection, it is necessary that the qualifying committee consists of people from different industries, that is, not only economists, entrepreneurs, and political figures, but also profile doctors and nurses.
Reference
Smith, D., Sowers, N., & Randall, S. (2020). Champ software presentation [Video].