Why quantum computers will have a main role in the future of medicine

Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson at Flickr.com

For a couple of decades, some large computer companies are working without much echo in the media about an absolutely incredible invention: quantum computing. The funny thing is that something so incomprehensible to the public will, with all certainty, be one of the most decisive factors in the technological changes that will come in the future. It is not easy to understand what exactly it is and what it can be useful for, considering the fact that explaining quantum mechanics is not a simple task. However, what we can know, and what we are going to talk about here, is that quantum computing is fundamentally different from the computation we currently use, and, among the millions of applications that it may have, medicine, of course, it is certainly included.

Quantum computing, as a field in full research and experimentation (although there are already quantum computers, such as D-Wave Systems,) could have a direct application in the radiology area - although not only in that one, by the way. Some sort of magnetic resonance capable of identifying specific molecules or molecular groups inside the cells and not the organism as a whole is something that a modern computer just cannot do; and such system is needed.

The usual techniques do not operate good enough with reduced quantities, so, there is still so much to do in terms of high-precision medical procedures. The resonance property of this especially matters for the systems operating today, but there are still great technical limitations that prominently reduce the field of molecules that we can measure. Currently, these barriers are now overcome - to a certain extent - thanks to the software that processes the information, but also makes the images more complicated to interpret and process.

Read also: Nanomedicine: a great hope from the small world, by Sudir Raju

Therefore, one of the current needs is a system that uses quantum techniques to alleviate the limitations of current hardware, and, in this way, to perceive the magnetic field as a whole at the same time. This is only possible if one works from the superposition and indetermination that characterize the quantum universe. By expanding the field - which is natural to the instruments we use today - it is conceivable to increment by ten the proportion between the greatest noticeable field quality and the field exactness, contrasted with the standard strategy used until now.

One of the great challenges in this field of computing is that the techniques used by quantum PCs surpass the simply electronic advancements we have reach today, and can tackle the issues with which we daily collide in biomedicine.

But there is very good news. The quantum computer of IBM can be a key piece in the future of Medicine, because, thanks to this system, the complex molecular and chemical interactions could be unraveled, and this would facilitate the discovery of new medicines and materials for clinical use.

Image courtesy of IBM Research at Flickr.com

IBM has presented a large and disruptive industrial initiative to build and commercialize universal quantum computing systems. Today, the leading technologies in computer science are executed on classic computers, based on the binary system of zeros and ones, which can find patterns and make discoveries about an inordinate amount of existing data. However, quantum computers provide solutions to problems in which the patterns cannot simply be identified, either because the data does not exist, or because the number of possibilities that should be analyzed is so huge that a modern computer could never process it.

The quantum computer that IBM is designing could cover a wide variety of thematic areas, so that all future applications of this system would enrich different fields of science, both in the social area and in Medicine. Thanks to this system, the complex molecular and chemical interactions could be deconstructed, and this would facilitate the discovery of new medicines and materials for clinical use, among other things. The quantum computer can foster a key aspect for the future of health sciences, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Thus, quantum computing could boost the capacity of areas in which this technology is developed, such as machine learning, when the flow of data is very large, without mentioning its possible uses in the analysis of images or videos. Additionally, the development of security in the cloud could bring great advances. It could make the cloud much more secure by applying the laws of quantum physics to improve the privacy of the data, and, in this way, patients' medical records would be much better protected.

Another fundamental aspect in which this technology can contribute is in the field of logistics and supply chain. In this way, the system could decipher the optimal trajectories along the global systems, for example, to optimize the management of transport fleets to deliver during a period of low maritime traffic. Also, sci-fi dreams like intelligent machines that can operate humans could be perfectly possible thanks to this revolutionary technology.

We are on the verge of a new industrial revolution, and this will positively influence medicine. Let's keep the best hopes.

Recommended: Quantum Computing And Health Care

Know some of the best telemedicine trends for 2018

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Telemedicine is, in short, the use of computer and telecommunication technologies for the exchange of medical information, and it is one of the fastest growing healthcare segments in the world (about 20% per year.) According to the World Health Organization, it is carried out when a critical factor forces doctors to provide health services from the distance. One of the requirements of this technology is the factual possibility to exchange the necessary information for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases and trauma, research and evaluation, as well as for the continuing education of health professionals in order to improve health and community development.

The first country to put telemedicine on the practical track was Norway, where there is a large number of places difficult to access when it comes traditional medical care. The second project was carried out in France for sailors of civil and military fleets. At present, numerous telemedicine projects are being developed in many countries and in international organizations.

In the field of telemedicine, one of the most important trends is the collection of data that is carried out by means of intelligent devices with an internet connection. These processes, which seek to personalize treatments more and more, are becoming increasingly necessary, not only to meet the particular needs of each patient, but because the information collected from thousands of patients around the world is an excellent source of data for the medical investigations that are being carried out on particular unsolved problems. This not only speeds up such processes, but also makes life easier for patients and allows doctors a greater margin of freedom. In addition, it allows hospitals and health centers to save costs, as the size of the facilities is considerably reduced.

On the other hand, trends in telemedicine have focused on two fundamental factors during the last decade. The first is related to significantly reducing the evident gap between the complexities of the devices with the everyday nature of medical care. The second factor consists, fundamentally, of the simplification of the interactions between patients and doctors with the devices and software tools. The objective of this is simply to facilitate the tasks and processes, as well as to reduce the technological barriers that some people may have so that the treatments do not have many obstacles and do not reduce the effectiveness at any time. For example, when it comes to cardiology, for instance, there was a tremendous dependence on wire equipment in the past to perform the transmission of heart and lung sounds. Today, with Bluetooth wireless technology, the transmission and digital recording of audio gives freedom to the doctor, and this type of exam is avoided in an expensive way.

Read also: The Best Technologies In The Field Of Medicine To Expect This Year, by Sudir Raju

Now, specifically at the time of transmission for sending parameters in telemedicine, in the case of biomedical devices such as stethoscopes, vital signs monitors, fetal monitors, electrocardiographs, etc., in general, all respectable hardware manufacturers they involve the respective communication outputs and inputs in their equipment. We can see this today, for example, in hospitals and clinics, in intensive care and intermediate care rooms, where the communication between the islands and the cubicles is the common denominator.

For telemedicine performed outdoors, the inputs and outputs for transmission and reception are vital, otherwise, it would be impossible to carry from the primary care hospitals to a Medical Center in a hospital of medium and high complexity the parameters with which the patient. It should be noted that, although biomedical equipment has its communication outputs and inputs, and these, in turn, want to be used in telemedicine outdoors, they inevitably enter an important function in the different interfaces between biomedical equipment and the transmission-reception hardware for optical fiber or satellite.

Image courtesy of Serpstat at Pexels.com

Telemedicine is changing the way we oversee and get therapeutic care. The standard thing is that patients who have possessed the capacity to appreciate these administrations are charmed, in light of the fact that they have what they require, when they need it, where they need it, and in the way they need. Luckily, providers, organizations, new businesses or elements that can build up these administrations are winding up more mindful and taking a shot at it.

Financing is one of the greatest hindrances as indicated by numerous suppliers who need to actualize or extend their telemedicine programs. Gifts are normally a choice, particularly for rustic or underserved populaces. In any case, getting them can be confused. Numerous are difficult to find and the application procedure itself is unpredictable. Nonetheless, regardless of the challenges, the medium and long-haul advantages of telemedicine, by obtaining the important coordinated effort advancements, are verifiable, both at a human and corporate level. Consequently, it makes up for the push to accomplish financial help.

Recommended: Draft Bill Aims to Increase Access to Addiction Treatment via Telemedicine

It is a crucial issue that health centers use the technologies and innovations that digital transformation provides. We are all exposed to situations that require protection and treatment that only they can provide and this becomes a key phenomenon when it comes to taking care of society and patients. Health centers must have a key technological infrastructure that allows them to face the daily challenges and critical emergency situations they experience on a daily basis.

Nanomedicine: a great hope from the small world

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A new interdisciplinary field of medical science is currently in the making. Its methods only leave the laboratories, and most of them still exist only in the form of projects. However, most experts believe that it is these methods that will become fundamental in the 21st century. For example, the National Institutes of Health of the United States have included nanomedicine in the top five priority areas of medical development in the 21st century, and the National Cancer Institute is going to apply the achievements of nanomedicine in the treatment of cancer. A number of foreign scientific centers have already demonstrated prototypes in the fields of diagnostics, treatment, prosthetics, and implantation.

“Nanomedicine is a medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine extends from the medical use of nanomaterials to nanoelectronic biosensors and even the possible use of molecular nanotechnology in the future”.

Nanomedicine aims to provide a significant set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future. The National Nanotechnology Initiative is looking forward to new commercial applications in the pharmaceutical industry that may include advanced drug delivery systems, new forms of therapy and imaging in vivo. Neural electronic interfaces and other nanoelectronic sensors are another active goals for research.

Societies are constantly looking for ways to improve health, in terms of costs, coverage, effectiveness, response to emerging diseases, and demographic changes. Nanotechnology has been critically examined to determine how the new capabilities it represents can be applied to current medical needs. Because nanotechnology inherits its approach to certain diseases derived from current medical research, its main objective has been towards non-infectious diseases e.g. cancer, and degenerative diseases.

Some developments in biomedicine at the nanoscopic level have the potential to create new generations of medical implants that are designed to interact with the body, monitor the chemical composition of blood and, if necessary, release certain medications. Bones, cartilages, and artificial skins that in addition to not being rejected by the body, seek to help some parts of the human body to regenerate. There are also new systems for diagnosis, imaging, and regeneration; in this way, it is intended that the side effects of current systems and/or procedures be mitigated.

A classic in the field of nanotechnology developments and predictions, Eric Drexler in his fundamental works described the main methods of treatment and diagnosis based on nanotechnology. The key problem to achieve these results is the creation of special medical nanorobots - nanomachines for repairing cells. Medical nanorobots should be able to diagnose diseases, circulating in the human blood and lymphatic systems and moving in the internal organs, deliver drugs to the affected area and even do surgical operations. Drexler also suggested that medical nanorobots would provide an opportunity to revitalize people frozen by cryonics.

Achievements of nanomedicine will become widely available by different estimates only after 40-50 years. However, a number of recent discoveries, developments, and investments in the nanotechnology have led to the fact that more and more analysts are shifting this date for 10-15 years downwards.

Read also: How Medical Diagnosis Has Been Impacted By IT, by Sudir Raju

So far, nanomedicine is a large industry, where sales reached 6.8 billion dollars more than a decade ago. In this industry, there are more than two hundred active companies, in which at least $ 3.8 billion are invested annually.

Two types of nanomedicine have just been tried in mice and are now required to be tried in people. We are talking about the application of gold nanocapsules for analyzing and guiding the antibodies as a vehicle for medical solutions. Those gold nanoparticles are composed of clusters of gold atoms prepared from the reduction of gold salts. Due to changes in their surface plasmon resonance, gold nanoparticles can be used for colorimetric assays. By means of the control of the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, it has been possible to detect matrices of biomolecules.

Image courtesy of BASF - We create chemistry at Flickr.com

Similarly, disposing of the lethality of medications is another use of nanomedicine, which has indicated promising outcomes in rats. The advantage of introducing nanoscale gadgets in therapeutic innovations is that those little gadgets are not so obtrusive, and they can be embedded inside the organism, and, what's more, their biochemical responses are much quicker. These gadgets work faster and end up being more practical, even more than the traditional ways.

The nanobots of nanomedicine could be produced with the function of restructuring or repairing muscles or bony tissues. Fractures could be a thing of the past, nanobots could be programmed to identify fissures in bones and fix these in two ways; performing some process to accelerate the recovery of the broken bone or melting with the broken bone or even both, and thus with an infinity of diseases of various types dissolving substances of multiple varieties according to, in blood or in the area to be treated specifically, injecting small amounts of antibiotics or antiseptics in case of colds or inflammations, etc.

Currently, silver nanoparticles are being used as disinfectants and antiseptics in pharmaceutical and surgical products, in underwear, gloves, socks and sports shoes, in baby products, personal hygiene products, cutlery, refrigerators, clothes washers and all type of implantable materials.

Recommended: Nanomedicine: Latest Research and Reviews

The Best 8 Medical Apps For Doctors

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Information technologies in the area of health are not just there to help consumers, like it is the case with patients as shown in one of our latest articles here at Sudir Raju’s; they are also here to support doctors and healthcare professionals in providing better services and making their life easier in general. 

People today are using technology more and more to better manage many aspects of their everyday life. Anything from the way they shop, the manner in which they relate to their friends and family and also how they choose to entertain themselves in their leisure time. This phenomenon is not something that is indifferent to the field of healthcare and its involvement happens in more than one way. Users utilize wearable devices to track their fitness activities and thus take charge of their own health preventively; there are resources online that allow you to triage your own symptoms and quickly figure out if you do need a doctor or if your condition is nothing to worry about; and there are even apps that will help them remember when and how to take their medicine, complete with alarms, schedules and reminders.

That being said, patients are not the only ones who are in the receiving ends of the new technological advances in the area of health informatics, as doctors are finding now apps that are truly useful and that can make truly lend them a hand in their important role of keeping us healthy.

This is a list of some of the best and most useful apps for doctors available today.

Medscape

Medscape is one of the most downloaded medical apps and definitely a name you will see in any list out there you look up in reference to apps preferred by doctors. The app is a place for all things medical, since it offers current news from more than 30 different sources, clinical reference sections, videos and procedural tutorials and even activities for medical students.

Mediquations Medical Calculator

This app is a great medical calculator with more than 230 formulas and scores. It provides support for US and SI units and it stores your progress automatically allowing you to index searches and review your latest activity in the app. It also provides you with links to references and other relevant information that can help you find more information quickly and without having you stop what you are doing.

Featured Image courtesy of jfcherry at Flickr.com

Epocrates

This app literally has millions of downloads in the United States and it isn’t difficult to know why. Epocrates is one of the completest databases where doctors can consult drug information and interactions, reach other healthcare providers and have access to quick tools to help them during consultations. The app is free, but you do need to pay for a yearly subscription in order to have access to the information it provides.

3D4Medical

3D4Medical is a group of apps developed not just for medical educations, but also for professionals in the field to use everyday. The app has a great collection of 3D models of anatomy, medical conditions and complete systems featuring the human body and its inner workings. It can be used as a great tool to communicate with patients and be able to explain to them situations that require a more in-depth look and visual aids to make your point clear.

MediBabble

Now we are onto the topic of communication, MediBabble is a great app that helps bridge the gap created by language barriers between doctors and patients. This interpretation app is specially created for physicians and makes it easier to take information and perform exams in patients that don't speak English. The database has medical related questions and diagrams easy to follow that can help physicians communicate with patients in 6 different languages.

PEPID

PEPID is a great app developed specifically for doctors, nurses, EMTs, residents and students working inside the emergency room. The feature for symptom checker is a great way to diagnose based on the information you input that reflects patient’s signs, symptoms, physical exams and lab results. The app also offers information on common diseases associated with the current condition and even treatment options and drug interactions.

Doximity

Doximity is the closest thing to a social network for doctors, but with more relevant information to share with fellow physicians. Doximity is the only HIPAA-compliant mobile messaging system for healthcare professionals at the moment, so you can be sure that the information shared is secure.

NEJM This Week

A great information app that brings you the latest medical news from reputable sources and keeps you informed about everything that is going. All the articles are published within the last week and come with editorial information, reviews, commentaries and case studies. It also includes videos and audio material for moments in which you cannot read but still want to hear the latest.

How Medical Diagnosis Has Been Impacted By IT

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As per discussed by Sudir Raju in previous articles, as of the fourth industrial revolution and the emergence of today’s different IT technologies, pretty much every sector of the economy and the industry, in general, has adopted to some extent the use of this avant-garde aid. Thus, today, a considerable variety of different technologies and other tools are used in the medical diagnostic process all across the world; however, the primary focus of this article is to highlight the role of IT in the health sector as it has permeated a large group of different technologies in healthcare, ranging from electronic health records, clinical prognosis, patient engagement tools, data analysis, laboratory tools, laboratory imaging technologies to other medical devices, etc. 

Health IT is the key and plays a vital role in today’s western diagnostic process: it is responsible for capturing the information about an individual, thusly providing physicians with reliable and accurate information. It includes all sorts of data: from clinical history to physical exams, IT provides doctors and physicians with the necessary information in order for them to both prescribe and assess tests and subsequently outline their subsequent workflow with a patient. Besides, since it is widely known that patients attend to different health professionals depending on the complexity of their case, IT has also enabled the whole industry to share information from one side to another.

Since there are rather little doubts about the fact that health IT does really have the potential to improve today’s diagnostic and prognosis processes in a positive way. Every time health IT tools aid and support diagnostic team members in finding out what is really going on with an individual without losing sight of the importance of keeping a human-centered principle, health IT does really comes in handy as it reduces the chances of possible diagnostic errors. Be that as it may, nonetheless, there are also several instances where this has not been the case and the diagnostic process has not been improved whatsoever, which is why some members of the healthcare community are no less than skeptical when it comes to speeding up the pace to which such technology is now being implemented, for they want to minimize the possibility of making mistakes.

Implementing the use of health IT, however, does lean towards a much more positive side, as it does entail the potential to aid in the discovery of possible and plausible diagnostic errors. The medical community also recognizes that the adoption of Health Information Technologies can also span over other aspects around medical diagnostics such as the tools that now available for physicians to properly assess an individual. With that being said, and since the adoption of additional technologies is based on the fact that minimizing the chances of making mistakes and falling into misguided diagnostics basically aims to act in the betterment of a patient’s safety, the medical community seems to agree upon the fact that health IT interacts within a context in which the involved sociotechnical system involves not only the technology itself but also the individuals responsible for operating such workflow, which ultimately delivers a new level of complexity since the present factors interact with each other most of the times with unknown foreseeable outcomes.

However, if one were to take a much wider look at this topic in general, the design of health IT seeks to provide additional support to today’s diagnostic process, particularly by supporting physicians and all the individuals involved in it as well as the procedures and task they are supposed to perform. Thus, a patient’s safety or rather the degree to which an individual’s overall safety can be improved, rises up since the potential of diagnostic errors is diminished. The no less than an overwhelming amount of complexities found within the healthcare sector has required all professionals to get acquainted with a vast quantity of information, which has resulted in them actually facing many cognitive challenges as applying the aforementioned information outstrips human capacities. This, of course, has led to another type of challenges when it comes to diagnosing an individual.

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The aforementioned aspect is perhaps the key behind the adoption of all IT technologies within the healthcare sector. Doctors, physicians and pretty much every healthcare professionals often make diagnostic errors because they fall victim of their very own nature as they are no less than vulnerable to a fallible human memory, communication mistakes and lapses and other several aspects inherent to human nature. It has been widely accepted and recognized that IT has a tremendous, to say the least, potential to help these professionals to mitigate their limitations and actually step up their level; however, it is still soon to assert that every single sub-sector can harness IT to the same degree, for healthcare in other countries is actually way behind today’s developments and the adoption would actually be useless.

Some Of The Best Healthcare Apps For Patients

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Experts affirm that the market for healthcare applications alone could top $30 billion before the year 2020. This only encompasses a limited portion of what the entire information technology industry can offer to the field of medicine. Health informatics develops products and services at a pace that is getting difficult to keep up with, and there are many reasons why this is happening. On one side you have the technology in which this services rely on and the fact that this technology is not only growing, but also adjusting to all aspects of our lives and the market, which makes it impossible to ignore healthcare and for developers not to look for opportunities to improve the way it can best serve people. Secondly, we have the customers that are becoming more educated, more demanding and more expectant of what technology can do for them. This means that there is a group of consumers waiting to use this technology, people who depend on it to make their lives easier and who expect for companies to watch the trends of the market and actually anticipate such needs. And last but not least, we have the fact that healthcare as well technology leaders pursue to challenge their own work by attempting to go beyond and to continue to innovate everything. The benefits of this inquisitiveness are reaped by the public and consumers who are directly touched by the advantages brought forth by these technologies and the importance they have in improving their quality of life. 

Patients are extremely important in this world and their involvement with the technology that can help them improve their health cannot be set aside. Today in Sudir Raju’s blog, we want to talk about some actual examples of the capabilities of information technologies in the area of healthcare and how some of this apps are today at the reach of everyone who has access to the most simple and common of technologies. 

Diabetes: M

iOS/Android/Free to download

Diabetes: M is much more than just a logbook, it is a complete suite of tools that will help you manage your life with diabetes and keeping it under control easily. The app allows patients to keep meticulous records of pretty much every aspect of their life with diabetes, anything from the food they consume to their insulin intake, a bolus calculator and detail graphs that ease the understanding of values and the creation of charts to better observe the information. One of the best features of the app is the vast food database that allows you to find pretty much any type of meals and dishes and input portions in a way that is accurate and precise. Your reports can be exported in different formats and the app is easily compatible with all kinds of portable devices, including Smart Watches.

iTriage

iOS/Android/Free to download

iTriage is a complete medical database and healthcare tool that can quickly and accurately provides you with information about symptoms, causes, procedures and medicine used in different situations. Not only do you have information about illnesses at your fingertips, but also an updated listing of healthcare facilities, hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers close to your current location. The app saves your preferences and searches so every time you use it is more accurate and updated. 

Instant Heart Rate

iOS/Android/Free to download

This app is considered the world’s best heart measurement option of its kind. The technology uses the camera on your phone to accurately measure your heartbeat using the color changes in your fingertip. This can be used for anyone from patients who need to monitor their vitals to athletes who keep a close watch of the biometrics and other performance information. While the app advices that it should be used for medical diagnosis, it does provide a great tool so you can quickly assess and measure your heart rate on the go. 

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Carezone

iOS/Android/Free to download

Carezone is a great app for those in charge of the healthcare of their family. It allows you to have different profiles with names, medications to take, dosages, alarms and many more features. It is perfect if you have children or if you take care of elderly patients. It also helps you stay organized with a calendar so you can schedule appointments, refills and other important dates to keep in mind.

Migraine Buddy

iOS/Android/Free to download

Migraines are difficult to deal with, and more so if you are unaware of their causes and onset. This app allows you to keep a journal on your migraines by letting you quickly jot down relevant information about triggers, symptoms, frequency, duration, intensity and location. Sadly migraines are not yet able to be explained fully by doctors, but this type of app helps the patient understand their condition better and their physicians help them make better decisions that can lead to curving their onset.

Big Data Analytics: A long way to walk in the world of health informatics

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Markus Spiske freeforcommercialuse.net at Pexels.com

Technology experts say that one of the great technological paradigms that will give a 180 ° turn to all aspects of human life is developing in the current era. One of the causes of this great paradigm shift is Big Data. Because, exponentially, all the objects and devices that surround us are becoming smart, meaning, among other things, that they are collecting the information that each of our actions produces and making metrics of it, every day they add a missing piece of the puzzle that constitutes the mystery of our human condition. Of course, the field of health informatics is no stranger to this great change of paradigm, and, certainly, Big Data will be a catalyst of our possibilities in the world of medicine.

Big Data brings a lot of optimism to the scientific community. Thanks to the massive collection and processing of information that artificial intelligence allows, scientists are saving decades (or perhaps centuries) of experimentation. This only means one thing: an incredibly broad spectrum (perhaps, too broad for our current capabilities) of possibilities for discoveries and inventions. And, in optimistic terms, this results in the defeat of impossible walls. More effective operations, safer, and with fewer risks, could be a daily matter. What many believe is that these developments will eradicate diseases that have given us hard battles, such as cancer or the infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and, even, some people assure that these scientific advances will take us to a point where we will transform our bodies into something beyond the 'human' concept.

But those are the dreams. There is also reality. The truth is that Big Data technology still has a long way to go before these bridges are built towards the impossible and beyond.

One of the main problems is that there is too much information available, but there is no way to process it and interpret it all to subsequently convert it into useful knowledge to solve practical problems. There are tons and tons of information stored on servers (and much more data being collected every second,) but we would need an immense army of researchers for being able to bring all of that into medical practice. For this reason, research on artificial intelligence is one of the most relevant trends at present: only a super processor (or many of them) could make this dream possible, and that is already a huge challenge itself.

Read also: 4 Trends That Will Likely Hover Around Health IT In 2018, by Sudir Raju

On the other hand, one of the big problems of Big Data is that it usually gathers a lot of unnecessary information. When researchers find - at last - a key question to answer for solving a particular problem (for example, regulating the immune system of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,) they realized that the machines have collected a great amount of information, but it is completely useless for the issues in question. How to program the machines so that they collect the correct information, before knowing which is the correct information? This problem is not impossible to solve, though, because, like many other scientific troubles, the trial and error technique allows you to eventually adjust the compass in the right direction. The point is that it takes a lot of time.

Big Data is fundamentally defined by five major interrelated variables: Volume, speed, variety, truth, and value. The volume is directly related to the amount of information collected, velocity is the time variable (how much data is collected in how much time,) variety has to do with how complex is the information which is being mined, veracity is the qualitative variable that points to how reliable or not the collected data is, and, finally, the value is related to the correspondence or not of the gathered information with the needs of researchers on a particular problem. The complicated issue here is that in each of these five variables there are conflicts and major obstacles that health informatics has not yet been able to solve.

Image courtesy of Penn State
at Flickr.com

Regarding the volume, there are two basic problems. The first one, as mentioned above, is that sometimes there is a lot of information available, but it is useless to resolve an issue in question (that is, it lacks real value,) or, alternatively, there is an excess of information supply for a little demand, and there is no way to stop the incessant stream of information that crams the servers (which are not infinite.) The second, on the contrary, is related to the problem of having a poor offer for a high demand. The latter means that the velocity at which the information is being collected, processed, and interpreted is not enough to solve a problem; and it is impossible to push things so that the rate increases because everything does not depend on the researchers but on the machines and the information that comes to the machines.

So there is a long journey to walk still, but there is hope.

Recommended: Big Data, Health Informatics, and the Future of Cardiovascular Medicine

Why The Use Of Health IT Has Become Paramount

In light of today’s fast-paced technological developments, developing areas and, in reality, all sorts of fields can benefit from the ongoing use of Information Technology, commonly referred to as IT. Under the scope of the healthcare industry, health IT is somewhat of a broad term that describes the traditional use of different technologies to both record and analyze health metrics. There are several technologies that embody the health IT spectrum: record systems, health devices and apps. All of them are responsible for providing physicians and researchers with accurate data so that they can provide patients with even more accurate diagnostics. For example, with the use of health IT, a nutritionist can tell a patient why they should follow a specific diet instead based on information provided by metrics, thusly minimizing the room for error and misinterpretations.

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As previously mentioned by Sudir Raju, the sole purpose of health information technology is to increase the degree at which doctors and physicians treat their patients properly, or, better said, to help them provide patients a much better healthcare—which also means making healthcare more balanced and equal for all individuals, as this information, the metrics physicians are able to collect through the use of the aforementioned different technologies, help healthcare ministries develop and implement policies in order to improve the healthcare system.

Thus, no wonder why institutions and researchers spare no efforts in bettering what they find and what they have found in terms of improvements. Health IT improves the rate at which the healthcare system delivers its services to patients. Besides, by paying special attention to new technologies, healthcare providers can minimize errors and increase patient safety, aside from obviously strengthening the interaction between providers and individuals. In fact, in poorer locations and areas where healthcare is rather a developing field, the implementation of these technologies is no less than mandatory. Otherwise, it would be impossible for locals to access affordable and reliable healthcare services.

By implementing health IT in medical facilities, clinics and hospitals can improve the quality of their services. In fact, this actually serves two different purposes: doctors and physicians can provide better services while accurately understanding more about what they already know about diseases, pathologies and other symptomatologies. When it comes to having a much broader picture about a patient’s medical history, information, especially accurate information, is key. Therefore, health IT is what ultimately allows physicians and doctors to better comprehend and interpret an individual’s medical history, thusly being able to provide them with better treatments and medications, which in the end allows the patient to receive a much greater probability of recovery depending on the case.

In short, health IT is paramount, especially under today’s conditions: climate change, overpopulation, natural disasters, etc., all these things combined require accurate treatments aside from a rapid response from healthcare service providers. The gap between rich and poor areas keeps growing over time, and medical services cannot be considered a luxury only a portion of individuals can afford, therefore, what the medical and scientific community aims to achieve is to reduce the fatal rates in those locations while making healthcare more accessible and accurate for all individuals. From that point on, it is quite easy to describe the perks of implementing health IT: whether it is empowering doctors to have accurate information at hand or prescribing the right medication, the scope of implementing health IT goes beyond any conception.

In fact, seeing the rate at which new diseases appear, health IT has become more than paramount: in order for physicians, doctors and scientists to develop new medications and treatments, they need to get a hold of accurate information. Without health IT, it would be impossible for them to assess new pathologies and diseases, and ultimately the whole healthcare system would fail at providing information about them. Thus, the benefits of the right metrics when it comes to assessing new diseases cannot be simply overlooked. Aspects such as healthcare records, better healthcare system, patient care, safety, less fatal rates, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity highly depend on the implementation of new healthcare information technologies. No wonder why the healthcare community works hand in hand to make the impossible possible within a very limited period of time. The race against diseases and healthcare inequality is a tough one.

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Last, but not least, health IT would be pointless were it not possible to integrate different sources of information. Given the importance of this field, the scientific community is also working on better ways to integrate different findings or to simply make clinical findings about diseases as well as patient records accessible: different physicians, different doctors, different clinics, whichever the case, they all need to be able to access specific information, especially if this information was collected by another person at a different place.

Why Health Informatics Is So Important To Healthcare

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The question we must clear up before we go any further is what probably most people who are beginning to read our articles here at Sudir Raju’s Blog is, what exactly is health informatics? What is the meaning of the concept and how it applies to improve our idea of healthcare by helping patients, doctors and the industry itself to become better everyday at doing what is meant to accomplish, making life for people more comfortable and of better quality.

Informatics in healthcare refers to a field that brings together many different disciplines by using health information technology to make healthcare better and more efficient, looking to lower the costs incurred and thus making it availability more common. The actual definition as given by the National Library of Medicine states that Health Informatics is "the interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management and planning". In summary we can safely say that informatics studies resources and methods to best manage health information, and that includes Electronic Health Records or EHR, Electronic Medical Records or EMR, as well as health information exchange standards and medical terminology used, nomenclature, clinical terms and the use of devices with the intent of collecting health data in a portable fashion.

Professionals in the field can make a real different in the life patients and they can be there besides health care providers and administrators finding ways to set standards by which electronic should be managed, educating the parties involved on how electronic record issues could be handled, working as advocates for quality and standard compliance when it comes to the security and privacy of patients information, providing the best information to support decision making in clinical matters and last but not least, being involved in several different steps when it comes to auditing, quality assessment of information and risk management in all matters having to deal with clinical research and new developments in mobile health.

People often see healthcare as the actions and services provided and being performed by those who are at the forefront of the medical field. People like nurses, doctors, technicians and physician’s assistants are not the only ones who greatly impact patient care. Support personnel play an important role shaping healthcare and with the essential nature that information technology has gained, it is now more than ever that people with the set of skills that are needed to navigate this field, are needed. Accurate recording and interpretation of data is absolutely indispensable to help people in the field and even policy makers in healthcare to find problems in the system and find ways to correct them. Also, that information in invaluable when it comes to finding solutions to those problems and to locate the areas that can benefit most from their impact.

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One of the most important areas in which health informatics shows the need the industry has for professionals in this field, is in electronic patient records. It is a fact that people no longer receive their entire treatment from just one professional, instead they see more than one healthcare provider and this can be a nightmare when it comes to keeping track of paper records that work as evidence of their medical history. It is incredibly safe and convenient to use electronic health record systems to help keep information regarding their visits to different physicians, specialists, hospitals, healthcare facilities, laboratories and more. These records allow patients the peace of mind that comes from not having to summarize their entire medical history every time they visit a new doctor and they also help providers have access to the relevant information that patients may forget or simply dismiss as unimportant. All of these factors reduce paperwork, speed up the process, relieve stress and more importantly, ensure patients that the staff at the facility is already prepared and with all the necessary resources to give the best possible service during their treatment.

The reduction of costs across the board is another huge reason for more investment in health informatics. Medical errors are said to cost the United States close to $40 billion year and health informaticians are extremely effective helping the industry reduce such errors. On one side, they are great at creating solutions that reduce menial work that takes up labor hours that could be better using helping patients and reducing pressure placed on providers; likewise the practices of health informatics are also very effective at reducing the amount of lab work that needs to be done, thus reducing costs of taking samples and running analysis that don't need to me repeated each time. Health informatics reduce operating costs and also significantly reduce insurance premiums, something that passes down immediately as savings to patients and a better work environment of health professionals and others involved in the industry.