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New technology has been the catalyst for positive change in numerous industries. One that’s benefited immensely is the medical industry, because practitioners are better able to provide their patients with excellent care while increasing efficiency at the same time.

Electronic health records are an example of cutting-edge technology that’s being widely implemented. Here are some specific examples of how both physicians and patients can benefit.

English: Electronic Health Records flow chart.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Real-time information

When treating a patient, it’s crucial that a doctor has access to up-to-date information that’s also highly accurate. Any missing or outdated information can hinder a doctor’s ability to diagnose and treat an ailment effectively.

Traditional paper files can be an issue because they sometimes lack key pieces of recent information. When this happens, that can reduce the odds of a quick recovery; at worst, it could be life-threatening.

Electronic health records are better because all information that’s input by one physician can immediately be viewed by any other physicians the patient visits. This ensures a higher degree of safety and reduces the likelihood of a medical error occurring.

Enhanced doctor-patient communication

Rather than communicating through phone calls as they did in the past, electronic health records allow doctors to send information to their patients electronically through email. Physicians can also send links to helpful online resources so patients can obtain information about after-care and learn more about their illness.

This enhanced patient participation can be beneficial for equipping patients with the knowledge to treat their ailment better so they can recover quicker.

Better overall efficiency

Another problem with traditional paper medical documents is that not everyone’s handwriting is perfectly legible. A hospital billing department might not be able to read the cost of a particular treatment accurately and bill a patient more or less than the actual total.

This can be highly problematic and lead to unnecessary complications that upset the flow of operations. By using the digital format of electronic health records, discrepancies should be significantly cut and different parties can stay on the same page.

Financial savings

Finally, a significant amount of money can be saved by storing information electronically. Just the costs of paper alone can really add up over the course of a year. Combine this with the cost of printing equipment, and doctors and hospitals can easily save thousands each year by using this type of technology.

Related articles

• Improving the doctor-patient relationship with the patient portal (PHR)
• What are the benefits of electronic health records (EHRs)?
• The Atlantic shares more on what EHR adoption will mean
• Physicians face challenge to share electronic health records, meet impending federal regulations

Project management in and of itself is a complex process. When an organization’s responsibilities include oversight for an entire portfolio, the process becomes even more sophisticated.

Why? Because the goals of project portfolio management (PPM) have to layer in scheduling, delivering, operations, and financial considerations, just for starters, while also keeping a focus on customer relationship management and external real-world factors.

Using a cloud-based interface adds additional degrees of complexity. Here are some factors for small- to mid-sized companies that may be tackling this management strategy for the first time.

Essential buyer’s guide for PPM

Getting the lowdown on the terminology and basic best practices used by other companies in your field is recommended. As one the top on-demand PPM solutions firms, Daptiv is a good place to start.

Their Essential Buyer’s Guide for PPM is a free download guide that will walk you through business justifications, assessments on your company’s maturity level, and industry trends and solutions for today’s digital age.

Setting priorities

You should decide on which initiatives are best aligned with the company’s mission statement and basic principles at the outset. According to InformationWeek contributor Frank J. DeLuca, “even with an engaged executive team, you will still need a PPM champion,” who should be an IT leader ideally, since a number of the initiatives will be technologically based.

To the cloud, my friend, to the cloud

Cloud-based project management has been inevitable for some time now. Cloud-oriented solutions are easier to manage because it’s there where a company can manage Big Data and take advantage of web-based scheduling tools that are no longer dependent on a single platform — and can also interface with evolving mobile environments.

Some of the tools PPM teams should consider are Microsoft’s Project Online with Office 365, ProjectManager.com, Write, Gantter, LiquidPlanner, and AtTask.

Accessing APIs in the cloud

Addressing API needs as they pertain to security, flexibility, scalability, performance, governance, and interoperability will indicate options for you that are currently available in the cloud. Andi Mann’s post, titled “Harness APIs to Deliver Competitive Applications in the ‘Cloud of Clouds,'” is a wee bit too detailed for the beginner, but it’s full of valuable information that pertains to APIs in the cloud.

According to Mann, if you do a formal analysis of your portfolio, you should be able to the cloud service that would be the best for your needs. It may not be one of the “usual suspects” such as Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Force.com, or Google App/Compute Engine.

As 2013 winds down and 2014 looms, it’s a perfect time to start something new. For small-to-mid-size firms, getting involved in PPM right away will point you in the right direction to become more competitive in the years to come.

If you don’t jump on board, you’ll see you’ve missed the boat as the blogosphere generates more analysis pertaining to the management of Big Data. Good luck, and happy sailing into those clouds.

Related articles

• Scaling Quality Content
• Project Management Software That Is Essential To Increase Productivity & Streamline Communication – Daptiv.com

Image via CrunchBase

Digital video and online video have been two hot trends, and there are multiple ways that this relatively new technology is bringing a change to the world. Here’s what we see happening now, and in the future, when it comes to this innovation.

1. Cord-cutting

People are “cutting” their cables virtually, when it comes to television and video. The term is a bit misleading, however, when it comes to what actually happens. Most people who discontinue cable television service will still get their Internet services through the same cable, but the point is, people are cutting costs by watching television, movies, and video clips online.

2. Simple answers

Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine? That opens an entirely different realm of possibilities when it comes to getting answers to people who can’t read or can’t visualize instruction.

3. Education

The cost of traditional college education has absolutely skyrocketed, and it’s reached an epidemic problem in America. The costs of tuition, living and books has escalated to the point where only the wealthiest citizens can afford to pay for it out of pocket, and the middle or lower class students who have to take loans are realizing that it’s not a good trade financially. Student loan debt in America stands at $1 trillion, and is rising, unfortunately.

At the same time, the bandwidth of the Internet and the scope of people’s devices, combined with the decreased cost of video creation and production, have led to an exciting revelation in education: it’s going online. It makes sense that the industry would consolidate in this manner. Why should 10,000 professors be giving the same speeches on any given day, when the five best professors could be giving it online, at a greatly reduced cost?

As a result, online video in the realm of education is becoming very popular. In many technical trades such as computing, it’s a natural fit. If you want to get IT training videos for Microsoft certification, there’s no better place to do it than on a computer. Being able to switch between video training and actual application of the learning is a natural fit. There are hundreds of educational uses of online video, and we’re only beginning to scratch the surface here.