Dropbox 4

Dropbox Assignment Number: 4

Section: NA

Question Number: NA

Questions

1. The system discussed in this case was a decision support system. However, other types of computer-aided support are utilized in medicine. Can you think of ways that the medical profession could use AI systems? For example, how about pattern recognition? Could that help in diagnosing illness?

2. A big worry in the collating and aggregation of medical information across departments and even medical institutions is that the more access there is to a person’s medical information, the more exposed that personal information becomes. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), signed into law in 1996, addresses the security and privacy of your health data. The law was enacted to try to ensure that medical records, electronically stored and transferred, would be protected. Do you think that making your medical records available to the various branches of the medical industry (doctors, therapists, insurance companies, hospital billing, etc.) is, on the whole, good or bad? Why? Can you think of any instances where disclosure of medical information could cause problems for a patient?

3. Could predictive analytics be a part of the HHC decision support system? If so, what sort of data would it analyze? What might it tell medical staff? Would it be useful only to those who are already ill or could it help healthy people? How?

4. A clinical study has shown that telemonitoring, discussed briefly in this case, helps in keeping down medical costs. In fact, monitored patients were hospitalized about half as often as those with the same illnesses who were not monitored. Emergency room visits were five times more likely among those who were unmonitored. What types of illnesses could be monitored this way (think chronic diseases like high blood pressure)? Would it make sense to use the system as follow-up care? How could the data be utilized to help those who might become sick in the...