Robotics, telemedicine, genomics, nanotechnologies, and imaging are the modern technologies revolutionizing healthcare. The Internet of Things (IoT) lets healthcare centers connect with remote monitoring devices.
The healthcare industry is taking leaps because of advancements in medical engineering infrastructure. Integrating IT and Clinical Engineering domains has always been important for improving healthcare infrastructure.
These advancements in the infrastructure help achieve better patient safety and IT integration. The investments being made in this field are immense to fast forward the processes of IT and device integration in the medical field. Reportedly, the global medical device engineering market was valued at USD 4.6 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 7.76 billion by 2027.
Additionally, custom CRM software development, cloud migration, and managed services are effective tools in healthcare IT consulting services to facilitate a smooth transition.
Why IT and Clinical Engineering Integration Matters?
In a healthcare service, IT and Clinical Engineering are two separate departments. The IT department handles the IT infrastructure, and clinical engineering uses medical technology to improve patient care. And each has its strategies, processes, goals, and systems.
This led to the rise of IoMT, or the Internet of Medical Things, which revolutionized the clinical engineering area. The IoMT is an integrated network of devices, sensors, software, and hardware applications.
IoMT has helped establish the interoperability of IT and Clinical Engineering. The synergy of these areas involved the integration of medical equipment and IT systems into a unified infrastructure, leading to the convergence of both.
Here are a few reasons why the convergence of IT and Clinical Engineering is needed:
- The increasing dependence of healthcare systems on IP-based networks
- Integration and interconnection of independent medical devices
Benefits of IT and Clinical Engineering Convergence
The convergence of IT and Clinical Engineering has facilitated a robust healthcare management environment.
The following are the main benefits of the convergence:
- Better awareness: The integration creates an increased awareness of the requirements and inadequacies of the medical equipment within the IT department.
- Enhanced security: Integration with the IT team upscales the medical systems’ security and protects them from cyber-attacks.
- Efficient management of information: A single system helps to provide, compare, and manage information better.
- Easier integration of remote devices and sensors: A well-converged system is scalable and easily accommodates a new device.
- Cost-effective approach: A less complex, integrated system with consolidated trained staff reduces the system management expenses.
- Improves patient safety: An efficient integrated system of medical equipment ensures that the patient gets the best treatment.
Best Strategies for IT and Clinical Engineering Synergy
The convergence of IT infrastructure and clinical engineering helps in efficient healthcare system management. Most importantly, it streamlines the processes and systems and eliminates the challenges in the traditional healthcare system.
Here are the best strategies to ensure a seamless convergence:
Understand How the Department Functions
The convergence of IT and Clinical engineering is possible with a thorough understanding of both departments. Since it is an interdisciplinary convergence, special focus should be paid to understanding the concept of both the departments simultaneously and as a single unit.
Clinical engineering must focus on understanding the mission, vision, concepts, goals and processes involved in the IT department. This way, the department can understand what the requirements for a digital outline of such a convergence are.
Similarly, the IT department must be given access to the essential resources of the clinical department. This is to understand the requirements of healthcare management and patient care.
Assess the Impact of Technology
The next step is to assess the impact of technology at every phase of the healthcare technology life cycle. The IT team should consider the hardware changes, incorporating custom CRM software development and recent upgrades. On the other hand, the clinical team should consider the impact of technology and improve the management processes.
For instance, medical equipment is increasingly dependent on IP-based networks. Hence, the reliability, scalability, and performance of the system are affected if the two departments function independently.
CE and IT leaders should discuss the challenges and compatibility issues throughout the process. And create an effective risk mitigation plan that manages the system better. Besides, healthcare IT consulting services can help to leverage different technologies like cloud migration for upscaling your infrastructure.
Create a Shared Resource Model
Medical technology and information technology are two completely different domains. Moreover, they have vast ideological differences of intellect that could complement each other. These ideological differences can lead to certain degrees of miscommunication if not mitigated in the beginning.
Hence, a solution to tackle these differences is to create an extensive shared resource for your department covering the important concepts. This could help both teams become acquainted with the internal workings of the department.
Consider Vendor Requirements Affecting the Infrastructure
All the vendors might not function in the same way. Some vendors may have complex processes and goals that fail to align with the organization’s infrastructure. This may exceed the estimated cost; hence, research and evaluate the vendor requirements. Moreover, the IT and clinical department convergence helps to create an effective strategy for a better understanding of the vendor terms.
Examples of the Convergence
A good example of the convergence is Intensive Care Unit (ICU) connected medical devices. In the ICU unit, there are different devices, such as a ventilator, patient monitor, infusion pump, syringe pump, and dialysis machine connected to the ICU patient. Further, these devices send all the data collected to the Clinical Information System (CIS) and Hospital Information System (HIS).
The Final Verdict
Technology is influencing the scalability, efficiency, and management of the healthcare sector. And IoMT is a crucial element fueling the change. In the modern healthcare scenario, healthcare and clinical engineering integration seems to be a feasible solution to tackle existing healthcare system problems.
IT and clinical engineering departments are two entirely different domains. One does not understand human nature, and the other does not understand the way human nature can be computerized. Hence, to establish a synergy between the two, adopting different strategies under the right leadership is the key factor.
Additionally, since both departments would be dealing with human life, it is important to remember not to compromise with infrastructure. Such compromises can severely affect a patient’s safety. Therefore, get a 360-degree view of the impact of convergence before going forward with it.
