In the healthcare IT industry, two of the driving goals that are often at odds with one another are controlling costs and improving the quality of medical treatment.  Telemedicine is one of the practical concepts that truly has the ability to do both at once.  Despite being called telemedicine, this group of technologies is used in hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities, just as much if not more that in a home care or remote setting.

Currently, telemedicine focuses largely on remote patient monitoring, but it also includes the use of videoconferencing for medical purposes as well.

From the rise of digitized health records to the increasing trend toward patient tele-monitoring, it is clear that a healthcare technology revolution has taken place in nearly every stage of the healthcare system.

Healthcare organizations have long been searching for ways that healthcare technology can help them innovate and provide better outcomes.  A particular challenge is the paper patient files that doctors and hospital staffs create, which no longer comply with trends in the healthcare IT market.

The key to transforming healthcare organizations from paper-based to paper-less is Electronic Medical Records, EMR.  

A few years ago, upon entering a hospital emergency room, you would likely be asked about your symptoms by a triage nurse holding a clipboard.  Today, it's just as common for the nurse to wield an iPad and add notes from your conversation that can later be accessed by several members of the hospital staff. This upgrade in healthcare technology saves the emergency room physician from undertaking a second detailed work-up on your condition. 

The words the cloud first popped up in technology and computer developer circles in 1994.  In brief, the cloud describes a third-party system that houses digital and data-based information on remote servers.

Since 1994, cloud computing has become more streamlined, affordable and widespread.  It has allowed companies large and small to save money on the storage of internal digital data -- including of accounting information, content archives and other sensitive categories of data.