History of informatics Essay

1. Briefly summarize the article. Be sure to discuss the registry. What is it? Who is included in it? 2. Describe the study and its purpose. How was it conducted? What are the limitations of the study? 3. Discuss the improved outcomes that the researchers uncovered. How does it benefit patients? What are the estimated cost savings? 4. Identify and discuss the three organizational characteristics that allowed disease registries to effectively promote continuous improvement of clinical practice and health outcomes. 5. Based upon your research and understanding of this topic, do you agree that this is a worthwhile project to undertake? The health care system all over the world has been struggling with the ever rising costs as such a consensus to refocus efforts on value driven by evaluation of patient outcomes relative to costs. The registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data to evaluate specific outcomes for a population defined by a specific disease, condition or exposure that serves one or more predefined scientific, clinical or policy purpose. The thirteen diseases registry uses outcome data to improve health care value. It comprises of five countries namely Australia, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. The study shows that by making outcome data transparent to both practitioners and the public well managed registries enable medical professionals to engage in continuous learning and to identify and share best clinical practices. This leads to improved health outcomes, at a lower cost often. The purpose of the study is to help document changes in health outcomes in patient populations covered by disease registry. The purpose of the study not only helps identify the changes, but also helps quantify the cost savings made possible by those improvements in the form of avoided health care costs as well as the role the registries played in these improvements. The study was conducted by analyzing data published, unpublished, observing as well as interviewing physicians who used the registry. However their were some limitations to the study as it was conducted in a setting that was not randomized nor controlled hence they could not demonstrate a casual connection between the registry and improvement in health outcomes. The improved outcomes the researchers uncovered were numerous in the thirteen disease registries. One such improved outcome was in 2005 when the created the quality index that tracked how well the nations hospitals were complying with clinical guidelines. The study showed improved health outcome at a compounded annual growth rate of 13 percent from 2005 to 2007 after public disclosure. By having these improved health outcomes achieved in various sectors, patient’s benefit in numerous ways such as lower healthcare costs, lower mortality rates, improvement in quality of services rendered to patients as more and more hospitals improve their clinical practices and adhere to the clinical guidelines. The US health care system spent $6 billion on total hip arthroplasty in 2005, and according to one estimate, these costs are expected to rise to $24 billion by 2015. Based on these assumptions, we estimate that if the US health care system could lower its revision burden by 2015 to Swed en’s current level of 10 percent, it would avoid $2 billion of the expected $24 billion in total costs.