[21/12/2007]
The "Technological modernisation, organisational change and service delivery in Catalan public health system" study, led by UOC professor Manuel Castells, has been presented on Wednesday, December 19. The Catalan Health Minister, Marina Geli, has chaired the event, which has been to take place in the Agbar Tower's Auditorium, (Av. Diagonal, 211, Barcelona).
The UOC presents a study of the uses of the internet and ICT in the health sector
The study, which forms part of Project Internet Catalonia (PIC), analyses the effects and state-of-the-art in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Catalan health system. The project shows how professionals are increasingly using internet, (but that this use is limited in terms of direct interaction with patients); the central role of ICT in the efficient reorganisation of the health system, and the need to coordinate the introduction of the technology, the networked organisation of health institutions and the training and development of adequate human resources.
Other results from PIC Health highlight the substantial technological progress seen in clinical practice and telemedicine, and image telediagnosis in particular; the difficulty in changing the technological system without significantly changing the work relations and organisational management models; the lack of integration of patients in the electronic communication systems; patients’ growing interest in health and the internet; the lack of interactiveness of health websites, etc. These are some of the results of the study, which has analysed the Catalan Health Institute, Barcelona's Hospital Clínic, Barcelona's registered practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, health system users, patients’ associations and healthcare websites in Catalonia. It has also analysed pioneering cases of the development of computerisation of health, such as the shared clinical history project in Palamós, Barcelona, Sabadell, Tarragona and the Osona region.
The research team that has made the PIC Health study possible is made up of the UOC professors Manuel Castells, the project leader, Francisco Lupiáñez and Francesc Saigí, and the senior researcher from the IN3, Josefa Sánchez.
PIC
PIC is an interdisciplinary research programme on the information society in Catalonia
carried out by the UOC's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3). It is a research project that
is of great value for Catalonia and Spain, and one of the most important in Europe.
Information Society