Define the fundamental responsibilities and key characteristics of the Chief Inf

Question

Define the fundamental responsibilities and key characteristics of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within health care organizations. Make one (1) recommendation where they can utilize their expertise to assist with employee and patient satisfaction. Support your response with related examples of such expertise in use.

Suggest two (2) developing technologies that health care systems should use in order to improve health care processes and thus increase the quality and lower the cost of health services. Provide a rationale to support your response.

Determine two (2) significant methods that health care systems should use in order to prevent misuse of information and protect data privacy and thus achieve a high level of security of health information. Provide a rationale to support your response.

Suggest one (1) strategy for health care organizations to train providers in using technology in health care. Provide a rationale to support your response.

Provide three (3) best practices for effective IT alignment and strategic planning initiatives. Justify your response.

Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar type Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Explanation / Answer

1.The chief information officer (CIO) is in charge of the information technology (IT) department and bridges the gap between the medical part of the health care and the IT department. Recently the CIOs are on high demand due to the technology used   in the healthcare sector. The fundamental   responsibilities of a CIO include;

The CIO should posses some unique characteristics which are;

The CIO should be very creative to enable him/ her in the effective designing   and planning of the IT part.

The CIO should have good management capabilities since he/she is in charge of the whole IT department thereby needed to supervise the whole department.

The CIO should have effective budgeting skills to enable him/her in choosing   the most efficient technology since there are diversified technology   in the healthcare sector. The CIO should therefore choose the most beneficial technology by using the cost-benefit method.

    On the other hand the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) oversees new technology ad make policies on the use of the new technology. The CTO is the right hand man of the of the CIO therefore none of them should underestimate the role of the other since they need to work together for the good of the health sector. The key responsibilities of a Chief Technology Officer differ with those of a CIO. The following are the responsibilities of the CTO;

The CTO should have the following characteristics to enable him/her to work efficiently. They include;

The CTO should have strong technological background for him/her to be familiar with technological trends.

The CTO should have good communication skills for him/her to communicate effectively to all stakeholders.

Both the CIO and the CTO can utilize their expertise in coming up with software used in the electronic health record thereby reducing the work for the employees using the records thus improving their productivity while the patients are served   faster making them satisfied.

2.Investing in the technology has been very expensive in the recent past making the cost incurred to increase with time. Many researchers in the health sector have invested their resources and time in coming up with technologies that will reduce the cost of providing the services and in improving the processes carried out. These technologies include;

Lab-on-a-chip is some technology which has been developed by Rutger Engineers. It is used in testing HIV and syphilis where    it employs micro fluids technology making tests more affordable since it uses 90% less sample fluids than needed in the conventional tests. The portable lab-on-a-chip is a holographic, lens-free imaging mechanism that counts specific molecules to determine if the blood sample tests positive. It does not require expensive resources and can give the results in seconds.

Artificial Pancreas for diabetics ; this technology has been invented by researchers in Cambridge university and even in other universities. This   form of technology will be majorly used by type 1 diabetic patients   where the artificial pancreas will consist of insulin pumps, glucose sensors and regulatory   software. The technology will be able to measure the level of glucose in a minute to minute basis and transmit    information to the insulin pumps that calculate and release the required amount of insulin into the body.

The health care sector should really invest in the above technology   in order to reduce the cost of providing the services to the patients. For example the Lab-on-a-chip uses fewer liquids required in giving the results and also increases the speed at which the results are given. Due to the accuracy needed it is therefore recommended for the technology to be used.

3.The health sector should ensure encryption of   data at rest for all portable devices which include the laptops and the tablets used in the health care facilities. Most of the employees may resist this but it should be emphasized to ensure that the is no breached of information used in the health cater. This will protect all the information used by the facility   thereby ensuring that there is no misuse of information that may have adverse effects in the future.

The health care should conduct more frequent vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to prevent any threats from malicious   outsiders. Personal health data are high value targets by the hackers since in this records there could be credit card information that may be used to steal from the patients who use their credit cards in paying for the services provided.

The health care industry should thereby use the above methods to ensure that the data stored in their facility is stored away from any unauthorized persons to ensure that their patients can trust them with their data and to reduce the number of fraud in the health industry to avoid any consequences such as   legal suits by the patients.

4.In training the service providers in the health sector   the industry should come up with the most efficient strategy in training the employees. The most effective strategy that should be used is the simulation training that is most common in other fields. With the advancement in the technology simulation training best strategy that the health care sector should adopt since it provides the safest environment for training the service providers. Making mistakes is highly discouraged in the medical training thus by using simulation training the patient is not put at any risk as opposed to learning using real lives that are very valuable even in the society.

Simulation training acts as the bridge between classroom learning and real life learning. This strategy is highly recommended by many researchers in the health industry since it is risk free due to the mistakes that may occur in the learning process.

.

The organization should identify the organization drivers I.e. The organization needs driving the IT. Due to the changes in the health care facilities identifying its needs may be complex but the organization should do this to ensure proper IT alignment.

Assessing the current alignment    should also be considered by the organization. They should establish whether the current IT capabilities are more efficient than the envisioned IT capabilities. This is done by checking on the investment, the asset and the organization.

The organization should create IT vision i.e. The employees in charge of the IT department. The envisioned It   creates a path for the policies that will encompass it to be identified thus making the new technology more efficient and to have the best IT alignment.

The organization should use the above practices to ensure effective IT alignment.

Implementing IT governance is among the practices to ensure best it alignment. Having developed a high-level IT governance model does not imply that governance is actually working in the organization. Conceiving the IT governance model is the first step, implementing it into the organization is the next challenging step. IT governance can be deployed using a mixture of various structures, processes and relational mechanisms. IT governance structures include structural (formal) devices and mechanisms for connecting and enabling horizontal, or liaison, contacts between business and IT management (decision-making) function.

It is important to recognize that each of the applied processes, structures and relational mechanisms serve specific or multiple goals in the complex alignment challenge. However, dividing the IT governance framework into smaller pieces, and solve each problem separately, does not always solve the complete problem A holistic approach towards IT governance acknowledges its complex and dynamic nature, consisting of a set of interdependent subsystems (processes, structures and relational mechanisms) that deliver a powerful whole

Saggiomo, v., & Velders, A. H. (2015). Removal Method for the Fabrication of Intricate Microfluid Devices.

Volpatti, L. R., & Yetisen, A. K. (2014). Commercialization of Microfluid Devices.

White, F. (2015). Foundation of universal Health systems.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse D
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.