Let me give you a specific example of IT's role in medical
care. My Father-in-law recently had an extended stay in the hospital where he required
around-the-clock care. Every time a new nurse would come in, or a shift change would
happen, they would electronically scan his wrist bracelet, and on the screen would be
every drug that had been administered and when, his allergies, his doctors and their
orders, diagnosis, etc. Everything was right there, up to the minute at the touch of a
button for any nurse to access.
The drawback of course, was
that it is a complicated system with a lot of access ports and constantly changing data,
and the system seemed to have some bugs and go down a
lot.
Privacy advocates also wonder if it's a good idea to
have all of a patient's medical information in one place, where it could be abused by,
say, insurance companies in deciding who to cover.
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