What next?
Technology is also being applied to improve the quality and safety of pediatric care through several major projects involving Dana-Farber and Children's Hospital Boston. Pediatric patients will soon benefit from an initiative known as CHAMPS (Children's Hospital Applications Maximizing Patient Safety), which began unfolding in phases last winter, and will integrate lab, pharmacy, medication ordering, and results reporting. A joint medical record and bar coding are also being planned.
MacLean believes technology is helping health care to flourish. "For example, we are using the computer to supplement an oncologist's brain, so he or she can focus more on the art of patient care," he says. "The better these technologies become, the better the care becomes.
"My dream is to use health information technology to link patient care, clinical research, and population science, and make it available at the point of care," he adds. "So, if an oncologist sees a woman of a certain age with a certain type of breast cancer, he or she could call up other cases like it and find out what worked best. The more information you have at your fingertips, the better your decisions become."
