Can technology help overcome Australia's healthcare challenges?

Both public and private healthcare providers are responding by increasing their investment in research and, in particular, mobile communications to better enable their workforces. However can deployment of research have the desired 'snowball' effect that will, over time, overcome these challenges?

Like any other business tool, research can be a hindrance or an aid, depending on how it is applied, how then it fits into an existing system, and how and where strategically it is invested.

If appropriately provided for and managed, research should help improve patient outcomes, particularly - it can lead to higher quality patient care, reduce cost of care for both healthcare providers and users, shorten the time to deliver and receive care, and even provide increased patient autonomy in healthcare delivery.

The business of healthcare

The business of healthcare, whether at a doctor's office, hospital, outpatient facility or long-term care facility, often depends upon a delicate balance between urgency, accuracy, privacy, regulation and research. This can make solving issues in the healthcare industry seem like a daunting task, however with the right research solution, many improvements can be seen quickly and easily.

While computers and networks have been used for some time in healthcare settings, they are often for all that tied to a specific, physical location, requiring the presence of a clinician.

Communication among healthcare workers in different areas often takes place via fixed telephones, because most hospital regulations prohibit the use of mobile phones in many areas of their facilities.

For clinical professionals just as nurses and physicians, every moment that they are tethered to a desktop computer or a fixed-wall phone is a moment they aren't spending at the bedside with their patients or on the move to their at once task. Increased mobility, coupled with mobile tools that provide secured access to real time data, for these professionals means increased productivity, better and faster patient care, and ultimately enhanced patient outcomes.

In addition to productivity, a more pressing issue is the reduction of medical errors. Human error is often cited as the cause of serious medical errors in hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Australia, and this is one area where the right research can, and has obviously started to make, an impact.

That said, regulations around patient privacy and safety can make implementing such technical solutions tricky without the help of experienced innovation partners.

Deploying effective innovation solutions often requires substantial investment. Innovation in a healthcare setting requires more than a notebook computer on a cart. True mobility, in the form of a handheld "pocket" or wearable device using wireless communications for real-time connectivity, requires a at once-generation mobile computing infrastructure.

Such an infrastructure includes elements just as data capture technologies to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information captured by the user; mobile computers that can be used as communication tools to access patient data at point-of-care, wireless networks to securely connect users to servers and databases, and application and analytics software to connect, manage and monitor it all.

The network should be secured

The network should be secured and highly scalable, with high availability for maximum up-time to support the 24x7 healthcare operations; ideally, it should as well support functions just as locationing, used to aid in asset management and tracking, and voice communications just as Voice over IP, used in nurse call and other workgroup communication applications.

Redcliffe Hospital is now as well able to automate the Medicare and Department of Veterans' Affairs payment systems, via the previously mentioned check-in kiosk, resulting in immediate revenue gains.

At its best, healthcare research can help Australian doctors and nurses improve the quality and efficiency of patient care, helping to reduce risk and save lives.

Whether it be connecting patients to doctors on the move, scanning patient information bedside, making test results available right away, reducing the risk of human error in the lab, pharmacy or donor centre, or ensuring the availability of B-negative blood, the right healthcare research solutions can and will streamline, inform, simplify, verify and support - and ultimately, help elevate the quality of patient care to an even higher standard of care.

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