Originally Published MX November/December 2005
EDITOR'S PAGE
Building the IT Future
With this issue, MX brings to a close its series on information technologies (IT) in healthcare. Articles in this eight-issue series have explored a variety of ways that medical technology companies are making use of IT to streamline product design and manufacturing, embed greater capabilities into their next-generation products, and contribute to the development of an IT-rich healthcare environment.
Despite rapid advances over the past few years, however, the world's healthcare systems still lag behind many other industries in the application of IT. For this issue's series wrap-up, "The Next Challenge for Healthcare IT", MX spoke with a panel of eight experts about the current status and future path of healthcare IT. Their comments suggest that there is a great deal more that medical device companies can be doing to advance the field.
Greater systems integration is just one need identified by the panelists. "If we don't get closer to plug and play, we are never going to realize the safety benefits of both digital devices for monitoring and treatment, and software for managing the information," says Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, medical director of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (Chicago). "It will forever remain a safety-risk area if we do not get the standards implemented and the systems working together smoothly."
The panelists had a great deal more to say about current obstacles to the adoption of IT systems and where the field of healthcare IT is likely to be heading in the future. The full transcript of the roundtable is accessible at www.devicelink.com/mx/archive/05/11/roundtable.html.
While you're visiting that article, don't forget to sign up to receive the magazine's monthly e-newsletter, MX: Issues Update. In these pages and online, MX will continue to follow developments in the emerging field of healthcare IT.
Copyright ©2005 MX
