Information Technology in Business Health Industry

Question: Discuss about the Information Technology in Business for Health Industry. Answer: Introduction Due to the Aging population being higher, there is a serious shortage of skills as well as growing expectations from the community. The community needs a higher standard of health care in all angles, and this is giving pressure to the health industry. There are new ways that have been derived to collaborate, as well as mobility tools that are used to give doctors and patients a better flexibility, security as well as centralization of data to help the community get the best services at a lower cost. To better achieve this, the Australian health care industry has deployed the Telstra Health to provide digital solutions to the health care industry. The technology is aimed at providing an equitable, safe as well as cost-effective health care across Australia since this is the biggest challenge in the country(Delloite, 2016). Telstra Health solves budget challenges in the health care industry in a way that is more innovative. They have a well-connected ICT infrastructure which is rationalized, and it enables them to connect administrators, clinicians, patients and the entities of the healthcare industry to provide a robust framework for collaboration and communication. Telstra Heal is beneficial to patients and doctors alike since they get a platform where they can securely access clinical data, telehealth, applications as well as online and video collaboration tools(Australian Trade Commission, February 2016). History of Digital Health in Australia. The digital health industry in Australia has a very long history that has used innovative communications technology to better the health care delivery. In 1929, there was an invention of a pedal powered the radio that helped the people in the isolated areas to advise them on medical emergencies. This was from the Royal Flying doctor's service. The Royal Flying Doctors are now one of the largest and comprehensive aeromedical company in the globe due to the continuation of the of IT usage in communication technology in the medical industry. In Australia, travel time is very significant. The terrain is bad and therefore many people are in urbanized areas. This means that many communities leave far away from centralized healthcare services like hospitals. In a scenario like this, Information Technology is critical, and it is used to solve the challenges in a better way. Adoption of IT in the health care industry in Australia makes it stand as the leading in health messaging as well as electronic health records. Today, Australia is at the forefront of medical care best practices because the government has invested heavily in digital health. This investment is supported by the work force that is highly technology driven and backed up by research institutions. Due to the expertise in the Australian health-related disciplines, their expertise is in high demand across the world. Smart solutions for healthcare services Digital health applications have been developed in Australia to assist in the delivery of quality medical care services as well as planning. These applications include the patient flow applications for instance to predict the number of patients who will arrive at the emergency section their needs as well as the number which will be admitted and that who will be discharged. Another one is the investment on surveillance of clinical statistics and detection of influenza outbreak as well as other diseases and infections. Benefits Of Telstra In Healthcare Industry The investment in Telstra health has come up with many benefits to the Australian health care industry. Some of the benefits are; Better patient comfort- the bedside units which are multipurpose lets the patient's access movies, emails, and the internet while in the hospital. Also, they can access health information, contact nurses as well as settle their accounts. Home healthcare services- telehealth technology has provided the ability to extend effective health care to homes as well as remote areas. Automated monitoring-monitoring of vital signs such as heart rate, blood glucose as well as oxygen saturation is an important feature of telehealth because patients can do so remotely. There is improved health education because of wider data visibility. This has bought about the ability to investigate patterns in infections as well as deliver informative health care education campaigns. Routine checks are streamlined, nurses can now dispense their prescriptions or even update the patient notes anywhere anytime. The routine checks enable them to keep up to date centralized data. The patients can get access to the right clinicians fast due to there is the enhancement in provider index of health professionals subspecialties as well as expertise which makes it possible to select the clinicians best suited for needs of the patient. Better patient understanding- to increase awareness and understanding of the patient's ailments, the doctors bring the medical imaging as well as rest results to the bedside where the patient is comfortable. Clinicians can check case notes and view test results faster hence improving the time needed to make decisions. The decisions are made faster and are more informed. There is great team collaboration through video conferencing as well as desktop sharing. This makes it easy to offer multidisciplinary care over long distances. Challenges In Adopting Telstra In Businesses Telstra health operates in a rapidly changing environment with a great change in how people communicate. This environment poses a challenge to the Technology(Kenny, 2016). Below is explanations of some risks that affect Telstra. They include environmental, material exposure as well as social sustainability risks and measures taken by Telstra to mitigate the risks. The risks are not encompassing, neither are they listed in the order of significance but they reflect the most significant as identified during this research.(Letts, 2016) The risk of the inability to respond to market and technology developments in a way that is both productive as well as cost effective. Telstras exposure to this risk is on the increase due to the change of market conditions increased expectations of the customers, increased advancement of technology as well as competitors with simpler business models in global and domestic markets The strategy Telstra used to mitigate this risk is to invest a combination of monitoring new and disruptive business technologies, ensuring efficiency in their business as well as investing actively in innovative as well as technology-driven opportunities. Involvement of multi-year portfolio that aims at simplifying their systems technology and processes. Develop the capability to innovate internally while acquiring the required people capability, business models as well as technology innovations through key suppliers(Telstra, 2015). Material business risk and their key drivers Disruption of services offered to customers due to rapidly changing demands as well as the dependence on telecommunication services, greater exposure to global complex networks as well as external shocks(Dumlao-Abadilla, 2017). Significant disruption of Telstra services brings about a major impact on their clients as well as the communities they serve. It also affects the company reputation. Maintain and developing their capability to prevent, respond to, withstand, anticipate as well as recover from the events that caused the shocks and disrupted the customer services. To deal with this, Telstra focuses on technology and network service continuity, business management continuity, emergency management as well as incidence management. All these are done by the business Resilience team to make sure they continue to meet their operational needs as well as taking advantage of opportunities that come up to grow their business Data management Collecting, managing or even using both customer and cooperate data in an inconsistent way is a risk faced by the Telstra health. This is because the data does not lie in line with the regulatory obligations or it does not meet the customer expectations The other risk in this group is the growing risk due to business changes that leads to higher volumes of data, and this poses a great opportunity for cyber criminals as well as other data set threats. Financial, reputational as well as regulatory implications caused by the failure to manage both customer and corporate data. This can also lead to losing customers due to lack of trust for Telstra to keep their data secure. Some controls have been made to control the risk. These controls include privacy compliance as well as data security. Mandatory data security awareness training for all the Telstra staff and partners. There is also vendor compliance training for all the vendors to make sure to take in consideration data security requirements developed by Telstra. Reviewing and continuous updating of all the security controls on their network that are based on known security threats and up to date intelligence. Work support compliance with Telstra privacy obligations done through their mandatory privacy training as well as privacy policy. Again, they are trying to improve the governance of the company as well as decision-making processes based on the use of corporate and customer data. Regulatory environment Increased complexity as well as the cost of doing things due to the emergence of unfavorable regulatory requirements. In Australia, Telstra is highly regulated because more and more people are relying on telecommunication. This means that there more regulatory intervention to protect the consumers, service as well as competition issues. Enforcement of new or existing regulations has a significant impact on the company revenues as well as the pricing, costs and product strategy. These regulations can also bring about additional compliance burden that hinders the ability to work with their plan. Management plans Telstra risk management strategy is focusing on putting a limit to the adverse consequences of existing as well as new regulations to service the needs of their customers in a way that efficient while making compliance costs to be as low as possible. Developing good relationships with regulatory policy stakeholders together with the policy makers, community groups and the industry to better their reputation. Telstra has engaged with ACCC and the Australian Communications and Medial Authority to discuss the scope and the outcomes from the regulations. Also, Telstra is aiming at developing relationship with jurisdiction and government where their products operate People Capability The risk of the inability to move value from their core and use it to build new growth powered businesses. As they advance from the telecommunications company in Australia to a more multifaceted technology, the capability of people will need to change to meet the needs of the customers. In their core business, there is need to make the business simple while delivering innovative products ad services. The capabilities of people a great strength to push them to achieve their growth target as well as realizing the benefits of their mergers as well as joint venture activities. Management plans Telstra is aimed at delivering all the capabilities that are required to make the business simpler, move to an NBN operating environment as well as getting value from their core business. The capabilities that are key are; IT network simplification, data analytics as well as product development. In the line of developing new businesses, Telstra is aimed at providing the capabilities that are required for their Healthcare business software application integration and development; enterprise managed services as well as international growth. In the global markets, Telstra is promising to set up mobility and remuneration policies and practices to better appeal people with talents from all over the world. Telstra has involved some recruitment team in Asia as well as recruitment partners in making sure their strategy to access international talent is not in vain. Conclusion Information technology has done a strong impetus on how businesses today operate by giving companies a touch of flexibility and efficiency. This paper has discussed the role information technology has played in the Australian health care industry making more emphases on Telstra Health. A few decades ago, There was no flexible access to health care especially in the remote area, but now with several inventions of IT systems, health care is now available to all the people. The paper also discusses the benefits Telstra has brought to the communities, the challenges the business is facing and the planes they take to make sure they remain in business especially in the environment of rapidly changing demands and expectations as well as advancement of technology Bibliography Australian Trade Commission, February 2016. DIGITAL Health, s.l.: Austra; in Unlimited. Delloite, 2016. Global health care outlook: 2016 Battling costs while improving care, s.l.: s.n. Dumlao-Abadilla, D., 2017. Telstra venture saw challenging, rewarding.' A Partnership to make a difference in telecom space, 23 January. Kenny, M., 2016. Election 2016: Telstra wins a contract to manage your health records. Federal Election 2016, 26 May. Letts, S., 2016. Telstra's $3 billion NBN black hole puts dividends under pressure. ABC News, 20 May. Telstra, 2015. Our material business risks, s.l.: Telstra.