 INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY IN
MEDICINE
Dr.T.V.Rao MD
 Kofi Annan, speaking at the
World Summit on the Information
Society
 “A technological
revolution is
transforming society in
a profound way. If
harnessed and directed
properly information
and communication
technologies(ICT) have
the potential to improve
all aspects of our
social, economic and
cultural life.”
 Information and
Informatics
 Information  Informatics is the
Technology is the scientific field that
use of hardware, deals with
software, services, biomedical
and supporting information, data
and knowledge -
infrastructure to
their storage,
manage
retrieval and optimal
information. deliver use for problem-
solving and decision-
making
 Innovative Use of Learning
Technologies
 An IT-enabled educational environment
 Easy, ubiquitous technology support

 Investment in simulation technologies

 Balance innovation and current successful

practice
 Continuous evaluation and improvement

 Training educators to use IT successfully

 Inquiry-based education
 Life-long learning and knowledge access skills
 Development Model

Research

Clinical Education

Stanford
Biomedicine Community

Applications and Services

Support,
Support, Training,
Training, Advocacy
Advocacy && Planning
Planning
Information
Information Acquisition,
Acquisition, Hosting,
Hosting, Management
Management &
& Access
Access
Knowledge Access and Delivery
Knowledge Access and Delivery

INFORMATION
INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE INFORMATICS
INFORMATICS
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT

Infrastructure
Expertise
Expertise Network
Network Data
Data Center
Center Security
Security Knowledge
Knowledge Resources
Resources Planning
Planning
ICT changing the future of Health
 The key developments
in health care in last
25 years is the
incursion of
information and
communications
technologies (Heath,
Luff,& Svensson,
2003). ICT have
changed the ways in
which medicine is
practiced and taught
Internet changing the future
What is the Internet?
 The largest
network of
networks in the
world.
 Uses TCP/IP
protocols and
packet switching .
 Runs on any
communications
substrate.
 Power of Internet
 A network of networks, joining many
government, university and private
computers together and providing an
infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin
boards, file archives, hypertext documents,
databases and other computational
resources
 The vast collection of computer networks
which form and act as a single huge network
y
for transport of data and messages across
distances which can be anywhere from the
same office to anywhere in the world.
The Creation of the Internet
 The creation of the
Internet solved the
following challenges:
 Basically inventing
digital networking as we
know it
 Survivability of an
infrastructure to send /
receive high-speed
electronic messages
 Reliability of computer
messaging
 Internet and Digital divide
 The digital divide is the
gap between people with
effective access to digital
and information
technology, and those with
very limited or no access
at all. It includes the
imbalance both in physical
access to technology and
the resources and skills
needed to effectively
participate as a digital
citizen
Global Internet Usage
 Internet Strategy
 The Web is our major point of contact with the World
 Internet strategy should support our strategic plan
 IRT Web design task force report
 The School needs a new Web site with:
 Better navigational model

 More consistent “branding” across the School

 Tighter coordination with Hospital Web sites

 Separation of public and private Web services

Information takes over many
human activities
 In the 21st Century,
information is at the
very core of many
human activities and
to be a significant
player in the
information society of
today, will depend on
the speed at which
information can be
accessed and shared
cost-effectively
 Information and Communication
Technology rapidly changing the world
 Information and
Communication
Technology or
ICTs[allow users to
participate in a rapidly
changing world in which
work and other activities
are increasingly
transformed by access
to varied and
developing
technologies.
ICT is a high technology oriented
 With an increasing
prevalence of
computers in and
out of the classroom
and the
development of
more sophisticated
web-based tools,
knowledge transfer
is increasing going
high-tech
The importance of information literacy

 Given the vast amount of resources

available on the Internet, the concept of
information literacy has received much
attention, particularly in the medical field.
Information literacy is defined as
knowledge and mastery of a variety of
technical tools that facilitate access to
information (websites, databases, etc.) in
order to find solutions to problems that
arise (Spitzer, Eisenberg, & Lowe, 1998)
Communication tools guide
learning
 CT tools can be used
to find, explore,
analyze, exchange and
present information
responsibly and without
discrimination. ICT can
be employed to give
users quick access to
ideas and experiences
from a wide range of
people, communities
and cultures.
 ICT created economic and
social impact
 The growth and
development of
information and
communication
technologies (ICTs)
has led to their wide
diffusion and
application, thus
increasing their
economic and social
impact
 Web-based support/diagnosis
On the internet you can find
a wide variety of medical
information, including:
Symptom diagnosis, for
people who wish to identify
their problem without
consulting a GP
Information about available
treatments/alternative
therapies Support groups
for people suffering from
particular conditions
Access to medical
research/journals
Information about side
effects
Helps the Medical Professionals and Patients
too..
 As medical professionals become more
specialized, diagnosis and treatment occur
in cooperation between different physicians
that may be distributed. They have to use
computers to exchange their medical data,
in particular images. However, data transfer
alone is not sufficient. they must also be
able to communicate about their patients, to
talk freely about medical data and refer to
that data during their discussion.
Helps the Physicians to cope up with
knowledge explosion
 The medical knowledge increases at an
amazing pace. Physicians are required to
keep up with new knowledge for their
whole life. To ensure the quality of
diagnosis and treatment, special
emphasis on continuous education is
needed. Computer-based techniques can
help with this task, in particular if they
provide training on the job, assisting in the
analysis of images and teleconsultation.
 Telemedicine
 The development of mobile communications,
teleconferencing
 facilities, multi-media capabilities of
telecommunications and the
 internet, has been of immense benefit in healthcare
delivery. By this
 revolution, spatial differences between medical
specialists, medical
 centers and patients have been eliminated. ICTs permit
valuable
 professional expertise to be made available to remote
areas
 Contuning Medical Education
supported by E-learning
 one of the key challenges facing medical
faculties is to introduce e-learning into
initial and continuous training programs.
The literature reports on the many
inherent advantages of e-learning, with
flexibility the most often cited. Users of
e-learning can proceed at their own
pace, wherever they happen to be, and
usually in the way that best suits them.
 E-medicine
 Medical equipment is becoming
increasingly more sophisticated
principally as a result of advances in ICTs.
However, while these systems offer
powerful tools for diagnosis; they require
certain economies of scale for their
effective usage. Tele-radiology offers an
effective means for achieving this by
giving wider access todiagnostic
equipment.
 E-learning is Multidimensional
 E-learning adds many dimensions to the
educational process and if utilized well, has
the potential to enhance both the students
and instructors educational experience.
 One benefit of e-learning allows students to
access the lectures and other material
when they are most attentive. In addition,
students have the ability to review the
material to the degree they feel necessary
 Challenges to Medical Professionals

 Better prepare
future physicians
for the changing
behaviours of
patients, who are
increasingly
Internet-savvy and
who sometimes
appear to know
more about their
diseases than their
physicians
 Medical Professionals to be well
communicated
 Which is closely linked
to the first, is to raise
awareness among
physicians in training
of the many benefits
of using ICT to
improve not only the
quality of interventions
and health care
delivery but, from a
broader perspective
 The Third challenge
 To motivate medical
students and
practitioners to use
ICT to find
information, learn and
develop. It is
proposed that
information literacy
should be a
mandatory skill for all
medical students
3 D animations helps faster learning
Although
underemployed in
most medical
faculties, it represents
the future of initial
and continuous
medical training.
Virtual resources and
communities,
simulations and 3D
animations
 Final challenge
 The fourth
and final
challenges
to change
medical
teaching
practices
 E-learning to Medical
Professionals
 Information literacy
should be considered
a mandatory skill in
the training of all
physicians.
 E-learning, although
not yet very
widespread in medical
faculties, represents
the future of initial and
continuous medical
training
Institutes and colleges should be
equipped with
 Tools such as virtual
simulators, 3D
animations, and
virtual communities
and e-portfolios are
important
innovations that will
have a growing
impact on medical
education and
practice
 On line learning in Medical
Education
 The use of online
learning provides
solutions that can
overcome some
problems with traditional
education, especially in
the area of medicine. We
are just beginning to
harness the power of the
internet for the delivery
and management of
medical education.
 Ubiquitous Access to
Information
 The future of computing
rests on a wireless
“always on” network
connection.
 Wireless networking is
progressing rapidly
 Mobile computing
devices are becoming
smaller, cheaper, more
powerful and better
integrated
 Creates tools for
Education and Research
 Biomedical workers
are often nomadic
 Major transforming
potential in the
clinical, research
and educational
environments
 New technologies helps in..
 To optimize Patient care

 To establish a true
longitudinal Patient
record

 To maximize the
amount of medical data
available for medical
health surveillance
Helps in early decision making
 To develop a Point of
Care hand-held
device and support
architecture to
improve military
health care by
improving medical
decision making and
reducing errors
beginning at the first
responder level
Information Technology has legal and
ethical concerns ???
 These developments
offer significant
benefits to patients
and healthcare
providers, but they
give rise to ethical
and legal challenges
in the protection of
patient privacy and
confidentiality.
Information technology limits the
Patient Doctor Relationship
 The traditional and
humanistic
concept of doctor-
patient relationship
is also under threat
as IT is used to
bypass the need
for personal
consultations
 Harms of Information
technology in Medicine
 One of the potential harms caused by
indiscriminate use of IT is information
overload and worse, misinformation.
Both can paralyse and impair the
patients’ decision-making capacity. The
flood of readily accessible but unverified
and unregulated information on the
world-wide-web is a cause for concern.
Information technology should not
deprive the Human touch
 The debate on the safe and appropriate
use of IT in medicine will continue to
evolve as the capabilities of the technology
are progressively being updated at a
hurried pace. Only by returning to the
fundamental precepts of medical ethics
can we continue to meet new challenges
posed by new inventions in order to
preserve the ideals and aspirations of the
profession, and society at large.
Is the Medical Profession losing Human
Touch ???
However Information Technology
United the World
Are we deviating from
Hippocratic Oath ???
 Created by Dr.T.V.Rao MD
for “e” learning in Medicine
Email
 doctortvrao@gmail.com