INSTRUCTIONS:
This portion of the informatics technology assignment should include a comprehensive
evaluation plan of the project and its impact on policy, procedures, and governing laws. Evaluate
current policy, procedures and/ protocols to determine if changes need to be made based upon Informatics Technology Evaluation Assignment Essay
the chosen technology and make those recommendations. In addition, identify and evaluate the
laws governing protection, security, and reimbursement such as HIPAA, HITECH and PHI for
the chosen technology.
Items to include are outlined as follows:
5 – 7 pages of content excluding the title page and references.
Current edition of APA format
Minimum of 5 articles published within the last 5 years
Acceptable sources: Scholarly resources (peer reviewed and or evidence based); textbook
and the Bible.
Informatics Technology Evaluation Assignment
Advances in technology have made it possible to make increasingly sophisticated attempts at remotely monitoring heart failure. These milestone will allow speedy detection of decompensating, better adherence to medication, lifestyle changes and other interventions such as changes in the dosages of diuretics all of which will reduce the need for constant hospitalization. Significant research has gone into the telemonitoring approaches in heart failure together with the evidence of the impact they have. While it is relatively simple to collect data on heart failure remotely, the challenge comes in converting the collected data into better decision making thereby improving the outcomes of care (Brahmbhatt and Cowie, 2019). Technology companies and policy-makers continue to be enthusiastic about the potential of the technologies in question to transform healthcare as well as bringing expertise to patients. However, due to a lack of consistent findings in the randomized trials, guideline writers remain to be convinced. This response describes and evaluation for a remote heart failure monitoring project and its impact on procedures, policies and governing laws. Based on the analysis, recommendations will be given on the way forward for remote monitoring for patients with heart failure.
Policies and Procedures
Different policies and procedures are in place to regulate the use of remote patient monitoring technology for heart failure. For instance, remote patient monitoring technology have to reflect principles that are user-friendly principles, evidence based designs, best practices and human factors science. Furthermore, the technologies in question need to be rigorously evaluated using clinical trials as a means of ensuring their efficacy on patients. They need to address the needs of all patients with heart failure without leaving out those that are financially disenfranchised, populations that are disadvantaged as well as those that have low literacy and low technological competency. Remote monitoring technologies should not cause any unnecessary burdens on their end users. They should therefore be customizable to the specific needs of all users (Brahmbhatt and Cowie, 2019). Support and training have to be available for all people using remote patient monitoring technologies with the durations of training and support being dependent on the capabilities of users.
There are also policies and procedures that revolve around the interoperability of remote patient monitoring technologies and their integration. These include the fact that the technologies need to always allow users the ability to request or access any of their health information that was either collected, stored or transmitted through these devices. Furthermore, any data that is collected through the technologies in question need to be fully integrated into the patient’s electronic health records. Policies are also in place to ensure that there is full interoperability between electronic health records and remote patient monitoring technologies (Dickinson, et al., 2018). The interoperability needs to include an exchange of information from service providers and also from patients to their providers and most importantly, the information should be transmitted in a timely manner to ensure speedy decision making.
On the subject of patient safety and data accuracy, policies and procedures direct that the technologies need to be rigorously evaluated in a clinical trial environments thereby ensuring that their usage will not compromise the safety of their users at any time. The documentation of the informed consent of patients for the use of these technologies needs to be obtained and also maintained including the identification of both patient and provider, the credentials of the provider, full disclosure of the procedures of use of the technologies, malpractice and liability procedures as well as the details on security risks and relevant security measures. The prescription of devices that may be defined as remote patient monitoring technologies must be in line with state scope of practice legislation. Using these technologies must also follow evidence based guidelines for practice to the extent that they are available thereby ensuring patient safety, positive outcomes and quality of care (Brahmbhatt and Cowie, 2019). The technology must at all times deliver data that is accurate to ensure that all healthcare decisions are based on useful and meaningful data. There must also be standards to select, screen and verify information that is communicated through the technology. The above policies are only a few that are in place for remote monitoring for patients with heart failure but provide an overview of the important issues surrounding this form of informatics technology.
Recommendations Informatics Technology Evaluation Assignment Essay
ORDER NOW A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
One of the main questions from the above discussion on policies and procedures on remote patient monitoring technologies is how they can be utilized to ensure decision making that is timely instead of simply generating higher workloads with more actions and decisions involved. The vast range of technologies that are currently in the market coupled with the lack of a consistent base of evidence has become a challenge for healthcare systems as well as those that are charged with approving funding (Andrès, et al., 2018). Clinical studies relating to the use of remote patient monitoring technology need to be designed in a manner that robustly assesses their impact on outcomes that are clinically important, workflow, patient experience and also reimbursement authorities. There are however still existent challenges around the type and nature of evidence that is considered to be useful by the numerous stakeholders that are involved in implementing remote monitoring technologies and other digital applications into traditional care settings.
Supporting relevant healthcare team members in dealing with data that has been remotely collected is important (Koehler et al., 2018). Questions that should be considered include who is responsible for analyzing the data that has been collected? How often is the data analyzed? What typically happens during weekends and off hours? How do providers ensure data security? What type of patient should the technology be availed to? At what stage of a disease’s pathway should the technology be recommended? However, clinical guidelines have remained silent in the above issues and questions with most current studies providing only scant details on the process of integrating the flow of data in the normal pathway of care. Without reimbursement, there remains very little incentive for healthcare providers to introduce remote monitoring technology for patients with heart failure as it may increase non-contact workloads while simultaneously reducing the income resulting from face-to-face clinical reviews (Dickinson, et al., 2018). Recently, key international and national organizations together with policy makers in healthcare have pointed out the challenges that surround digital technologies into various healthcare systems. It is therefore very likely that it is only through coordinated efforts from all relevant stakeholders including patients that will allow an establishment of particular technologies (Stehlik et al., 2020).
The potential for the use of remote monitoring technologies for patients with heart failure remains enormous. Looking at how the remote management of diabetes has been successful, a model of how people living with heart failure and other conditions will rarely need to seek medical advice except in the case of emergencies and how their heart functions can be monitored and the data can be easily integrated into a data platform that can be accessed by the patient, their caregivers and their healthcare providers from anywhere and at any given time so long as they have access to the internet and the cloud-based servers. The devices can also be linked with diabetic patient’s smartphones and insulin pumps to ensure stable control of glucose levels. However, the situation is further behind for heart failure which could intrinsically be a more complex condition (Andrès, et al., 2018). Without a doubt, remote monitoring for this condition can find an important place for patients living with heart failure as well as the healthcare professionals that advise them.
Conclusion
Heart failure is becoming an increasingly common condition especially in developed country. However, the cost of managing heart failure, and the mortality rates resulting from it remain high. This can be improved by implementing remote monitoring to ensure that data on patient’s heart conditions is collected at any given time thereby allowing healthcare providers with a basis to make informed information. Furthermore, patients can also be reminded to take their medications as required. Data security and patient safety, while addressed by the current policies and procedures, continue to raise many important questions. This response therefore also recommends additional research on increasing the efficacy of remote monitoring especially in the case of heart failure patients. Informatics Technology Evaluation Assignment Essay
References
Andrès, E., Talha, S., Zulfiqar, A.-A., Hajjam, M., Ervé, S., Hajjam, J., Gény, B., & Hajjam El Hassani, A. (2018). Current Research and New Perspectives of Telemedicine in Chronic Heart Failure: Narrative Review and Points of Interest for the Clinician. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 7(12), 544. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7120544
Brahmbhatt, D. H., & Cowie, M. R. (2019). Remote management of heart failure: an overview of telemonitoring technologies. Cardiac failure review, 5(2), 86. doi: 10.15420/cfr.2019.5.3
Dickinson, M. G., Allen, L. A., Albert, N. A., DiSalvo, T., Ewald, G. A., Vest, A. R. & Givertz, M. M. (2018). Remote monitoring of patients with heart failure: a white paper from the Heart Failure Society of America Scientific Statements Committee. Journal of cardiac failure, 24(10), 682-694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2018.08.011Get rights and content
Koehler, F., Koehler, K., Deckwart, O., Prescher, S., Wegscheider, K., Kirwan, B. A., … & Stangl, K. (2018). Efficacy of telemedical interventional management in patients with heart failure (TIM-HF2): a randomised, controlled, parallel-group, unmasked trial. The Lancet, 392(10152), 1047-1057. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31880-4
Stehlik, J., Schmalfuss, C., Bozkurt, B., Nativi-Nicolau, J., Wohlfahrt, P., Wegerich, S., … & Pham, M. (2020). Continuous wearable monitoring analytics predict heart failure hospitalization: the LINK-HF multicenter study. Circulation: Heart Failure, 13(3), e006513. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.119.006513
Informatics Technology Evaluation Assignment Instructions
Overview
The doctoral student will complete a formal paper addressing implementation of a technology project suitable to his/her workplace/practice. The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (2006) addresses the understanding of DNP students to utilize patient care technology for the improvement and transformation of health care. The informatics technology project will allow the DNP student to identify a relevant technology for improving practice, patient care delivery and outcomes. The student will examine workflow design related to the chosen technology along with evaluation related to impact on policy, procedures and/or organizational protocols. As a result of the chosen technology for the project, the student will present the research and information learned to classmates.
Instructions
This portion of the informatics technology assignment should include a comprehensive evaluation plan of the project and its impact on policy, procedures, and governing laws. Evaluate current policy, procedures and/ protocols to determine if changes need to be made based upon the chosen technology and make those recommendations. In addition, identify and evaluate the laws governing protection, security, and reimbursement such as HIPAA, HITECH and PHI for the chosen technology.
Items to include are outlined as follows:
- 5 – 7 pages of content excluding the title page and references.
- Current edition of APA format
- Minimum of 5 articles published within the last 5 years
- Acceptable sources: Scholarly resources (peer reviewed and or evidence based); textbook and the Bible.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.