With a view to ensure better use of information technology (IT) in transforming healthcare system of the country, the Disease Management Association of India (DMAI) has urged the government and the healthcare providers to take proactive steps towards documenting the clinical impact of the same for better results.

Interestingly, as per the information given by DMAI there is considerable amount of IT based projects that are going in healthcare sector which is a very positive sign towards making the healthcare system of country IT enabled. However, unlike the other sectors, the projects that have been completed or are under pipeline by leveraging IT in the healthcare are very rarely documented for their clinical outcome.

According to Rajendra Pratap Gupta, president and board member, DMAI, “Today if you ask any government or private agency to provide some data on the probable outcome of the IT project undertaken in healthcare sector, most of them will come blank on it. This is because no efforts have been made till now to systematically document any of the results which is ironic. All the data present is segregated due to which we cannot actually highlight on the total number of healthcare in information technology (HCIT) projects in the country.”

He insisted that if the government is really intent on pushing through the use of IT in the healthcare sector for enabling better accessibility and patient services, steps should be taken to formulate a plan to document the results of the IT projects as well. This will enable us to have a detailed idea on the impact and the effect of the use of IT so as to broaden the scope and use of it further.

For effective IT deployment for monitoring healthcare activities across the country Gupta suggests that steps should be taken by the government to draft a format in the lines of what have been followed by other countries to document all the use of IT in the healthcare sector.

“It is high time for us to make a transition from just using IT in healthcare to meaningful use of IT. The role of IT in enabling better healthcare services to the patients is going through a major revolutionary change with more and more healthcare service providers in India opting to adopt IT. Thus we need to create a benchmark for the same as this will not only help in accessing timely information about the patients at the time of emergencies but will also help healthcare providers in maintaining a updated data on their patients and their treatment regimens right from the start,” he added.