Role of Healthcare IT to Reduce the Burden of Diseases and Reduce Healthcare Costs

President Barack Obama of the United States announced in January 2009 that within the next five years, all medical records in the country would be electronic, thanks to immediate investments made to ensure this goal of improving healthcare quality while cutting costs. This will eliminate bureaucracy and lower the cost of costly medical testing. By lowering the fatal medical errors that are common in the healthcare system, it will save lives. However, Pakistan's health profile is exemplified by its rapid population increase, high rates of newborn and maternal mortality, and dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. One contributing cause to these statistics is the absence of health information technology (IT) involvement in the healthcare system. More than 80% of Pakistan's health system's budget is spent on pharmaceuticals and medical supplies (Kumar & Bano, 2017), while only a relatively small percentage is spent on electronic and digital systems for primary, secondary, and tertiary care.

The burden of diseases is divided into two categories by the World Health Organization (WHO): non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and communicable diseases (CDs). The primary categories of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)/chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory conditions, and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), that place the most burden on industrialized and developing nations have been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2016 global profile. The global profile of the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) has pointed out types of CDs /Infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, TB, and malaria (communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional conditions) that contribute the greatest burden in low and middle countries and lowest burden in developed countries but Covid-19 of 2020 has contributed as infectious disease globally burden.

The profile of Pakistan's communicable and non-communicable diseases in 2016 of World Health Organization according to it Pakistan has 35% CDs and 58% NCDs estimated according to CDs and NCDs deaths. Global shifting of disease burden from communicable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has led to a large proportion of deaths in developed and developing countries, but Pakistan has both large proportions of deaths due to CDs and NCDs. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported some essential NCD medicines and basic technologies to treat major NCDs, the number of essential NCD medicines reported as “generally available” in 2017, the four medicines out of 10 in Pakistan, and the number of essential NCD technologies reported as “generally available” 2017 the technologies four out of 6 in Pakistan. However, Pakistan is very behind in terms of electronic and digitalized technology that caters to the needs of advanced and complex surgeries. Lack of consistency, lack of horizontal integration at any level, and lack of indicator weighting for NCDs are the issues with these health information systems. Inaccurate or delayed reporting, poor quality and dependability, data analysis, and the utilization of data for evidence-based decision-making are other problems. Important deficiencies include the absence of data from small GP clinics and the private sector, as well as the unreliability of the death registry caused by NCDs. The role of health information technology (IT), such as the Health Information and Management System (HIMS), can help reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases (NCDs) and infectious diseases (CDs). The HIMS system shows how health records are managed at three different levels of healthcare. It replaces manual and computerized health records with electronic medical records (EMRs), which include free-text notes from healthcare providers and medical images/imaging data, administrative insurance claims, patient registries, population health surveys, medical research, including genetic studies, and data from digital apps and wearable devices, among other sources. In the end, this lowers the main risk factors that raised Pakistan's disease burden and boosts the effectiveness of district headquarters hospitals (DHQs), rural health centers (RHCs), headquarters hospitals (THQs), and basic health units (BHUs), as well as the quality of care provided.

The Health Ministry of Pakistan developed the HMIS in 1991–1992, but sadly, the system isn't very effective. Owing to poor healthcare spending and a lack of clear policies for integrating cutting-edge technology into the healthcare system, Pakistan is attempting to improve HIMS with the help of the WHO. At the moment, 77 districts and 80 trained individuals from a total of 134 districts routinely report activities linked to health (Nizar & Chagani, 2016). However, in most of the healthcare delivery systems of public and private sectors, the HMIS is non-functional. Telemedicine refers to long-distance patient care and the provision of remote clinical services via real-time two-way communication between patient and health care provider, using electronic audio and visual means. It deals with the major contribution of remote areas burden disease; telemedicine reduces it and some other factors such as the unwillingness of doctors to work in rural areas, overcoming the scarcity of paramedics and hospital beds, providing treatment at par with the metropolitan facilities, and facilitating healthcare accessibility and affordability healthcare to all rural and urban areas. Other technologies, such as telemedicine and the idea of e-health, have been introduced as pilot programs to reduce the burden of sickness in rural Pakistani areas like Baltistan and the Education Foundation, with technical support from Comsats (S. Nishtar, 2006). The Ministry of Health's recent focus on technology-assisted health information archival for the development of management information systems—which will link information from all of Pakistan's districts—is also a progressive step since it will influence technology to improve disease surveillance. Furthermore, a lot of work is being done by the Aman Foundation's telehealth contact center to provide medical services, particularly to the nation's impoverished population (Punjani et al., 2014). Among the IT resources currently available in Pakistan's health sector are the medical information system (MIS) for patients, the biometric attendance system for doctors and other paramedical staff, the online bank card payment system for treatments, computers, the internet, and smartphone-based doctor appointments (Wasay & Associates, 2014).

Digital health innovations are already transforming primary care and driving health systems toward a more integrated, people-centered approach to providing healthcare services. These technologies, which enable telemedicine, remote care, and mobile health, can help enhance the patient experience by bringing hospital environments into people's homes. The key to this trend is the availability of services like home monitoring (blood pressure, medication adjustments, blood, and urine testing), electronic sensors that allow for the measurement of vital signs, and activity tracking to help staff monitor patients who are at risk of falling, and point-of-care diagnostic testing for conditions like diabetes, HIV, and malaria that can quickly analyze results and serve as a crucial treatment guide (WHO 2015). Pakistan needs this kind of technology to advance its economy and lessen the burden of disease. This century has seen a significant advancement in the development of assistive and medical technologies. For example, 3-D printing is revolutionizing the manufacturing of medical equipment, orthotics, and prostheses. Hendricks, D. (2017) states that mobile and electronic health, which includes free-text notes and medical imaging data from healthcare providers, especially in primary care, can help patients with low-cost acute and chronic disease screening and early diagnosis at a lower risk of complications. In the Chronic Care Model, the role of Health IT is to move ambulatory care from acute, episodic, and reactive encounters to proactive, planned, and individualized long-term care with the aid of advancements in information technologies and telecommunication infrastructures (Dzenowagis, J. 2018). Other functions of Health IT include managing acute flare-ups of diseases, preventing more complications related to the disease, minimizing treatment-related risks, identifying triggers of transition, and identifying subpopulations most likely to benefit from coordinated care. The primary reason for the deceleration of economic progress is the prevalence of illnesses. The state of health plays a significant role in the economy. Economic growth and human well-being are correlated with the productivity and efficacy of the labor force, which is enhanced by good health (Punjani & Associates, 2014).