Future Trends Health Care 2013 | Page 54

The HITECH Act - To accelerate the use of health information technology (Health IT), Congress and President Obama signed into
law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009. The HITECH Act authorized Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide financial incentives to
eligible hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and eligible professionals to adopt and meaningfully use certified electronic
health record (EHR) technology to improve patient care. The HITECH Act also authorized the Office of the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology (ONC) to establish and administer programs to guide physicians, hospitals and other key entities, as
they adopt and meaningfully use certified EHR technology as established in subsequent Federal regulations. Source: Healthit.gov
The Internet of Things - A global network infrastructure includes existing and evolving Internet and network developments. It will
offer specific object-identification, sensor and connection capability as the basis for the development of independent
cooperative services and applications. These will be characterised by a high degree of autonomous data capture, event transfer,
network connectivity and interoperability. Source: InterLink Future Trends In Information Technology, www.interlink-nts.org
Transformational leadership - Style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates a vision to guide the
change through inspiration, and executes the change with the commitment of the members of the group. Source:
www.businessdictionary.com
Transitional Care - A set of actions designed to ensure the coordination and continuity of health care as patients transfer between
different locations or different levels of care within the same location. Representative locations include (but are not limited to)
hospitals, sub-acute and post-acute nursing homes, the patient’s home, primary and specialty care offices, and long-term care
facilities. Transitional care is based on a comprehensive plan of care and the availability of health care practitioners who are welltrained in chronic care and have current information about the patient’s goals, preferences, and clinical status. It includes logistical
arrangements, education of the patient and family, and coordination among the health professionals involved in the transition.
Transitional care, which encompasses both the sending and the receiving aspects of the transfer, is essential for persons with
complex care needs. Source: American Geriatrics Society
Translation services - There are a range of translation services including language translation, basic document translation,
translation of web content, multimedia and standard documents, legal or certified translation, high-tech services such as desktop
publishing, software localization and international search engine optimization (SEO). There is no primary governing body over the
translation and localization industry, but there are specific industry certifications and affiliations that are relevant to these services.
Certifications that are indicative of top-notch translation services include the ISO 9001:2008 and EN 15038 certifications. The ISO
certification specifies requirements for quality management systems within an organization. The EN 15038 certification is also a
quality standard, but it is specific to translation service providers and set forth by the European Committee for Standardization.
Source: Business Directory.com
Transparency - Health care transparency provides people with the ability to see provider-specific information on costs and quality of
medical services. Understanding the true costs of medical services, and being able to compare the quality of care, leads to better
outcomes and lower health care costs.
Transplant Safety - Transplant safety falls into two categories: organ safety and tissue safety. Efforts to advance transplant safety
are ongoing, and include improvements in tests to better identify the presence of infection. Center for Disease Control has
responsibility for surveillance, detection, and warning of potential public health risks within the organ and tissue supply. These public
health efforts help make transplants the highest quality possible so that recipients have the best outcomes. Source: CDC.gov
Urgent Care - A category of walk-in clinic focused on the delivery of ambulatory care in a dedicated medical facility outside of a
traditional emergency room. Urgent care centers primarily treat injuries or illnesses requiring immediate care, but not serious enough
to require an ER visit. Source: MHMUrgentcare
User Experience, User Center Design - An integrated set of technologies used to provide interaction between a user and a set of
applications, processes, content, services or other users. A UXP has several components, including portals, mashup tools, content
management, search, rich Internet application (RIA) tools, analytics, collaboration, social and mobile tools. http://www.gartner.com/itglossary/user-experience-platforms-uxp/
User interface - The set of dials, knobs, operating system commands, graphical display formats, and other devices provided by a
computer or a program to allow the user to communicate and use the computer or program. http://searchciomidmarket.techtarget.com/definition/interface
Using foresight and insight - Research to discover potential future challenges and opportunities.

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