Software applications once held on local computers and servers are beginning to shift to the public Internet sphere, and private health information is no exception. The likelihood of placing once restricted and private health records “in the cloud” is increasing. Cloud Computing Applications for Quality Health Care Delivery focuses on cloud technologies that could affect quality in the healthcare field. Leading experts in this area offer their knowledge and contribute to the demystification of healthcare in the Cloud. This publication will prove to be a useful tool for undergraduate and graduate students of healthcare quality and management, healthcare managers, and industry professionals.

Despite its high cost, the US healthcare system produces relatively short life spans, and is wasteful, inefficient and has serious safety and quality issues. While other industries have surmounted similar challenges by transforming themselves through information technology, healthcare lags behind. Major reasons are that our approaches to care delivery and financial incentives were designed for a bygone era. Beyond that the technology offered to practitioners has often been overly expensive, poorly designed, overly proprietary, hard to implement and difficult to use. Spurred by a unique, one-time Federal stimulus and the new mobile, wireless and cloud technologies now available, this landscape is rapidly changing. To succeed going forward practitioners, and those interested in entering the field, need to understand the new driving forces and have a basic understanding of contemporary clinical informatics. Practitioners, in particular, need to understand the alternative technologies and approaches available for their use in individual patient care and more continuous management of their chronic disease patients. To efficiently meet these needs, this book provides an introduction to the rationale for care transformation through clinical informatics; its application to patient care outside of hospitals; and a look at its future. Key points are illustrated throughout by actual examples of open source and commercial health IT products and services. While written with practitioners and students entering the field of clinical informatics in mind, the book eschews technical terminology and is easily accessible by the lay reader not proficient in clinical medicine or information technology.

One of the central engines of the current shift towards decentralization and reorientation of healthcare services is mobile healthcare (mHealth). mHealth offers unique opportunities to reduce cost, increase efficiencies, and improve quality and access to healthcare. However, the full impact of mHealth is just beginning to be felt by the medical community and requires further examination to understand the full range of benefits it contributes to medical staff and patients. Mobile Health Applications for Quality Healthcare Delivery explores the emergence of mHealth in the healthcare setting and examines its impact on patient-centered care, including how it has reshaped access, quality, and treatment. Highlighting topics such as patient management, emergency medicine, and health monitoring, this publication supports e-health systems designers in understanding how mobile technologies can best be used for the benefit of both doctors and their patients. It is designed for healthcare professionals, administrators, students, health services managers, and academicians.

Medical practitioners are continuing to advance their knowledge of the latest technologies in order to keep up with the opportunities for faster and more reliable treatments for patients. Advancing Medical Practice through Technology: Applications for Healthcare Delivery, Management, and Quality focuses on the latest medical practices through the utilization of technologies and innovative concepts. This book is an essential reference source for researchers, academics, and industry professionals interested in the latest advancements in the healthcare, biomedicine, and medical communications fields.

The implementation of cloud technologies in healthcare is paving the way to more effective patient care and management for medical professionals around the world. As more facilities start to integrate cloud computing into their healthcare systems, it is imperative to examine the emergent trends and innovations in the field. Cloud Computing Systems and Applications in Healthcare features innovative research on the impact that cloud technology has on patient care, disease management, and the efficiency of various medical systems. Highlighting the challenges and difficulties in implementing cloud technology into the healthcare field, this publication is a critical reference source for academicians, technology designers, engineers, professionals, analysts, and graduate students.

One of the central engines of the current shift towards decentralization and reorientation of healthcare services is mobile healthcare (mHealth). mHealth offers unique opportunities to reduce cost, increase efficiencies, and improve quality and access to healthcare. However, the full impact of mHealth is just beginning to be felt by the medical community and requires further examination to understand the full range of benefits it contributes to medical staff and patients. Mobile Health Applications for Quality Healthcare Delivery explores the emergence of mHealth in the healthcare setting and examines its impact on patient-centered care, including how it has reshaped access, quality, and treatment. Highlighting topics such as patient management, emergency medicine, and health monitoring, this publication supports e-health systems designers in understanding how mobile technologies can best be used for the benefit of both doctors and their patients. It is designed for healthcare professionals, administrators, students, health services managers, and academicians.

In both rich and poor nations, public resources for health care are inadequate to meet demand. Policy makers and health care providers must determine how to provide the most effective health care to citizens using the limited resources that are available. This chapter describes current and future challenges in the delivery of health care, and outlines the role that operations research (OR) models can play in helping to solve those problems. The chapter concludes with an overview of this book – its intended audience, the areas covered, and a description of the subsequent chapters. KEY WORDS Health care delivery, Health care planning HEALTH CARE DELIVERY: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES 3 1.1 WORLDWIDE HEALTH: THE PAST 50 YEARS Human health has improved significantly in the last 50 years. In 1950, global life expectancy was 46 years [1]. That figure rose to 61 years by 1980 and to 67 years by 1998 [2]. Much of these gains occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and were due in large part to improved nutrition and sanitation, medical innovations, and improvements in public health infrastructure.