Cerner shows how technology can deliver world class healthcare at lower cost

14 November 2011

At the ‘British Experience in Technology for Health’ conference in Barcelona, Cerner detailed how technology can help people take  more control of their healthcare deliver better care at reduced cost.

The conference was jointly hosted by the United Kingdom’s Trade and Investment Department and TicSalut, a leading Spanish organisation that aims to improve healthcare through the use of technology.

The conference was an opportunity for British experts in health informatics to explain how their experiences within the NHS in the UK can also be used in Spain to meet the common challenges in health across the developed world.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that patients taking an active role in the management of their care have better health outcomes. Cerner believes that patients need to have greater access and control over their care; just as the banking and travel industries have taken a lead in their own respective sectors, Cerner makes the case that the same thing needs to happen in healthcare.

Cerner’s personal health record, Cerner Health, allows users to access their medical records online and input data such as diet, exercise and other personal and lifestyle information.

Cerner is also trying to avoid the costly duplication of tests by making diagnostics results, such scans and X-rays, available not only to the hospital where the scan or X-ray was taken, but also to the appropriate physiotherapist in the community and the family doctor in primary care. The electronic medical record (EPR) within Cerner Millennium allows for an integrated approach to health and care so that different care settings are joined together to treat the patient throughout the care pathway in order to deliver better outcomes.

Cerner is helping governments and institutions around the world to change the way in which both health and care is delivered in order to improve clinical outcomes and save money — this is not just about using technology, it involves changing the way we think about health. Speaking ahead of the conference, Simon Hill, Cerner’s head of corporate affairs, said: “We face a potential crisis within healthcare across the developed world with an ageing population, an increase in lifestyle diseases, a shrinking tax-payer base, greater patients’ expectations, and rapidly increasing costs of care — they could combine to cause a ‘perfect storm’ in healthcare.

"If we are to meet the challenge of the ‘perfect storm’, then a number of things need to happen: people need to take more responsibility for their own health; we need to provide more care outside of the traditional hospital setting; and we need to better integrate the different care settings — primary, acute and community care. A key enabler to delivering world-class care at reduced cost is real-time access to high-quality information and data. As one of the world’s leading healthcare information and data organisations, we are delighted to share our experiences in the UK, Spain, and worldwide.”

 

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