Policing disease outbreaks is a government concern for the benefit of populace. Possible outbreak can propose debilitating effects not only on the population affected but on the business, social and technological make-up of the group. Clinical Solutions has therefore offered significant assistance to governments and the public on how to manage disease outbreaks of every kind which is the supreme responsibility of its IT environment. In most governments and civilian entities, basic health information is considered lacking or highly unreliable.
Interactions on a national or global area responding to the occurrence of epidemics have therefore opened an opportunity for IT to fit in and work responsibly for the common good. If health systems “could not open itself to opportunities and embrace a culture of learning” progress could not be facilitated as the health of a nation is impeded (WHO, 2004: p. 13). In 2007 and early 2008, when a benign yet highly contagious virus invaded UK during the winter months, the number of cases overshoot predictions thereby catapulting hospitals to cope with an added stress as a shortage of beds was commonly observed.
The Health Protection Agency confirmed that the winter months had affected almost 3M people and it occurrence has exceeded the records of recent years. Knowing how disease outbreaks can significantly affect the economy through an inflate health cost, the public had been advised to stay away from hospitals in order to limit contact with affected individuals and prevent an outbreak. Though considered a benign disease, the norovirus has raised UK’s ability to deal and manage outbreaks of the same or increasing scale.
Similar to the threat of the avian flu and other diseases that could occur in a crowded nation in epidemic proportions, this health issue calls for an effective resource invested in IT to prepare itself for an outbreak. How it relate to IT IT can help effectively when traditional access may not be available or could no longer be an option. The solution shall work with the NHS with whom the public has become familiar and comfortable with. When Hong Kong was plagued with the SARS virus in 2003, it was quick to adopt measures by “containing the outbreak through it program called Policing Disease” (WHO, 2004).
Although it had little time to develop a state-of-the art, Information Technology; “they were able to merge their computer systems into a single health IT tool” (WHO, 2004). The same database used in criminal investigations was used to track the transmission of SARS through the country. The Health Authority, modified software to monitor 14 hospitals where patients with SARS were being treated and a contact information system was drawn up to locate those which may have had contact with the suspected patients.
Following this tracking method, individuals and families suspected with the disease were easily monitored while suspected or confirmed victims were issued number cards and prevent them from leaving the territory as part of its containment measure. Project risk A surveillance technology had been in place designed to manage emergency situation in disease outbreaks which works with the NHS who has employed thousand of staff.
The same can be used by local government units who have the expertise to collect data for decision-making, prioritize work, provide advice and training and work hand–in-hand with other agencies. An associated risk however may lie within the delivery of effective and consistent information. Considering how individuals may have varying views or opinions, the risk definitely lies within the biased opinion that can necessarily affect the flow of communication. Engaging people in proper training and psychological evaluation can greatly aid the consistency of the project in order to mitigate risks efficiently.
Hong Kong’s transparency throughout the entire world may have saved us all from the debilitating effects of SARS and it helps to know that its innovative IT merger has also engaged people who are willing to work round the clock to police a deadly disease. How it identify the risks Exercise Cumpston in Australia was able to manage a pandemic through the monitoring of an international flight that managed to identify the infected from the non-infected ones on board the flight.
A pattern was established to monitor the health of individuals and their location while the trained staff carefully monitored the whereabouts of the non-infected individuals and a pandemic never ensued. In the even, Clinical Solutions could not provide equitable measures to tackle an epidemic; a tool which can effectively analyze its spread can be readily available as a means of communicating information to those affected. In this case, Information Technology provides a consistent approach of assessing symptoms in order to reduce errors that can be affected by biased opinions.
In summary, It can take a stand where human errors and bias may affect the monitoring of the disease outbreak. Conclusion Managing risks for many is deemed costly and therefore could not bode well with the company’s stakeholders. The impact based on studies however favors managing risks equitably because it helps business enterprises achieve its business goals and thereby increase shareholder values. In some situations, a company or entity may employ an IT firm who can effectively handle risk situations.
Others particularly frequent among service and business-driven institutions, IT can be an existing special department who can undertake a risk management program. To better prepare companies who may entertain proactive scenarios like mergers, in the case of London Ambulance, BNG and Clinical Solutions, Khosrow-Pour has endorsed the use of “Bayesian statistics as a causal model for desktop risks which allows the study of desktop downtimes and predict the power of a chosen methodology” (Khosrow-Pour, 2006:p. 151).
The statistics which combine qualitative and quantitative data however in risk management approaches do not mitigate any drawbacks of each technique. This can be highly recommended in in a business environment and in the four cases discussed, be applicable to the Clinical Solution’s contagion for risks because “severely wrong judgments cannot be falsified through existing historical data because its predictive power may be reduced” (Khosrow-Pour, 2006:p. 151). Through the enumerated cases, we can definitely provide that desktop risks are a common problem among most organizations.
Human error as a user-centered characteristic for risk occurrence is also another factor that can definitely decrease the efficacy and pose as a challenge to Information Technology. Factors which included internal influence readily summarized in an issue involving EBS is an example for the advent of such risks where information could not freely flow as opposed to the principles that IT preached and strives to implement at all costs. Other factors that can increase risk situations are the effect of incentives and training of personnel who operate the system as part of the user-efficiency counter-measure for risk mitigation techniques.
Another factor is to include the role of problem-solving methods employed by organizations where incidents no longer reach the IT department of help desk due to situations beyond IT team’s control.
Bibliography
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