Request for Introduction to Healthcare Technology/IT Resources

October 12, 2007

As a health IT blogger I’m often asked about books and articles that can introduce the general topic of technology (and IT) in healthcare. One of the nicest free resources is available at NIH. It’s called HTA 101: Introduction Health Technology Assessment. It’s worth reading much of the document but there’s a section on fundamental concepts and issues that’s really useful. It’s not specific to IT and the document is more about assessing technology than using it but it’s a good introductory document. Of special interest is the nice glossary.

I’ve started this posting merely as a repository — if you know of any introductory materials that could help your fellow colleagues or those new to health IT, please post a comment here.

Got any favorite resources you’d like to share?

  • The PACS Designer

    Health care IT understanding requires a knowledge of the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Standard. The link below will get you the basic information:

    http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/pacswebortho/newsupdate/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174401209

  • http://timothywayne.cook.googlepages.com/home Tim Cook

    This link on the openEHR website has a good introduction to some of the core technical issues and some possible solutions based on research over the past 15 or so years.

    http://www.openehr.org/getting_started/t_openehr_primer.htm

  • http://www.neotool.com/blog/2007/01/17/hl7-guide-for-beginners-article/ Jon Mertz

    An overview of the HL7 standard that was published in For the Record magazine.

  • http://blog.hin.com Healthcare Intelligence Network

    The Healthcare Intelligence Network’s free white papers on healthcare IT can be useful.

    http://www.hin.com/library/white_papers.html

  • Jennifer Sotomayor

    I was wondering if anyone knew of a job board that healthcare IT people post their resumes.

  • http://www.medadherence.com Jonathan Katz

    If you want to understand the issues facing IT especially the lack of technology I suggest the following 2 books. They are at a high level but talk about the lack of IT as an important missing piece.

    Redefining Health Care:
    by Michael E. Porter (Author)

    The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor (Hardcover)
    by Andy Kessler (Author)

  • http://www.worldmedcard.com JA Ploetz

    Healthcare Technology / Reform is a vast spectrum. One could offer that IT technologist segregate and specilize on these three viens:

    1. Legacy institutional EMR / DICOM / Surgical suite

    2. Consumer based tools http://www.myphr.com/resources/phr_search.asp
    also American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)has http://www.ahima.org/infocenter/

    3. Narrowing the bridge from (1) to (2) via streamlined HL7 based products

    During this genesis of technology for Healthcare Standards, it is much like Banking was in late 70′s & early 80′s. Soon IT for Healthcare will flourish and become less vague. If you look to Amsterdam / Netherland region, they are 10-15 years ahead of where many of us would like North America to be now.

    Regards,
    Jeff

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