Trends in Healthcare Information Technology and Informatics in Healthcare

It was not until 1994 that the United States (U.S.) health care industry established information systems capable of handling a universal delivery system. These Information Technology Systems (ITS) operated along enterprise and system boundaries in the Health Care Delivery System (HDS). ITS have become fragmented by the proprietary business benefits of large vendors that want to control patient information (Accenture, 2001). Practical tools, especially computers, continue to be created and rapidly placed in industry with the ability of organizations to accept, accommodate, and even embrace technology moving at a varied pace (McHaney, n.d.). The health care industry has been one of the unhurried organizations to embrace the computer revolution in regards to patient care. Health organizations have been using computers for years in business departments. Health care comprises the use and management of a profusion of information that must be collected, managed, reviewed, processed, and mined (McHaney, n.d.). Technology changes rapidly and maintaining the status quo in health care actually means falling behind; and health organizations cannot afford to do that in a technology-driven world (Rutsky, 1999).