1. POLITECNICO DI MILANO
POLO REGIONALE DI COMO
Communication and Society
Project: Impact of ICT on Society
2008/2009
Professor: Nicoletta Di Blas
Submitted By
Md. Iqbal Mahmood (707243)

2. Table of Contents
INDEX PAGE
1. Executive summery………………………………………………………………………………..3
2. Enhance Analysis of Health Sector in Society….…………………………….………………4
2.1 Patient Records ………………….………………………………………………………………….....4
2.2 Prescribing medicines….…………………………………...………………………………..………..4
2.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care……….…... ……………………………..……….4
2.4 Teleconferencing……………………………………………………………………..………………..5
3. Obsolesce Analysis of Health Sector in Society………………………………….……………….5
3.1 Patient Records ………………..……………………………………………..………………...……..5
3.2 Prescribing medicines …...……………………………………………………………....……………5
3.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care …........……………………………………..…….5
3.4 Teleconferencing………………………………………………………………………………...…….5
4. Retrieve Analysis of Health Sector in Society….......………………………………...…………...5
4.1 Patient Records..………….......………………………………………………………………………5
4.2 Prescribing medicines …………………….…..……………………………………...……………….6
4.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care ………….…………………………………...……6
4.4 Teleconferencing………………………………………………………………………………...…….6
5. Reverse Analysis of Health Sector in Society…………………….……………………………….6
5.1 Patient Records ..…………..…………………………………………..…………………..…………..6
5.2 Prescribing medicines ……………………………………….………...……………………..……….6
5.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care ………….……………………………...…………7
5.4 Teleconferencing………………………………………………………………………………...…….7
6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..………………..7
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3. 1. Executive Summary
The new information and communications technologies (ICT) are changing the way we undertake many activities –
Health, working, shopping, and having fun and many kinds of social interaction. Information and communication
technology (ICT) plays an important role in the filed of health sector on society.
The impact of ICT in the field of health sector on the society can be felt at the local level, the national level, the regional
level and the global level. Some examples of the ICT applications at the local level include: Local health sector support
and health services –online service information and local content creation. At the national level, ICT helps the society
by helping provide: e-governance, Regulatory framework and cyber-laws. Sustainable human development, .g., ,
telemedicine, e-learning etc and e-commerce. At the regional and the global levels, ICT facilitates cooperation and
growth by easing the hospital to hospital, people-to-doctor contacts and sharing of treatment, best practices, etc.
Information and communication Technology (ICT) and health sector on society are related to each other. In this project
four media laws i.e. Enhance, Obsolesce, Retrieve and Reverse are analysed with respect to the impact of ICT in the
field of health sector on society.
Enhance-Health sector on society is improved using information and communication technology. ICT are only a part of
a continuum of technologies, starting with treatment and medicine, all of which can support and enrich treatment. ICT,
as any tools, must be considered as such, and used and adapted to serve health service. ICTs are a potentially powerful
tool for extending health service opportunities, both formal and non-formal. ICT i.e. Hospital admission enhance
synchronous and asynchronous communication, Prescribing medicines, Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive
care system, Teleconferencing system is enhance health sector on society. ICTs can enhance the quality of health in
several ways: by increasing better treatment motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic service,
and by enhancing doctor training.
Obsolesce-Synchronous and asynchronous communication using traditional systems like paper based communication is
become obsolete. But ICT makes it easier for this reason; Traditional human interactions become obsolete day by day.
In Electronic health system based treatment equipment, i.e, hospital resources are not access to the patients, so hospital
resources become obsolete.
Retrieve-Traditional synchronous and asynchronous communication is not reliable and flexible because of some
difficulty, cost and delay. But when ICT makes it easier then traditional users use that. ICT create a virtual human
interaction environment for the people who are not interested to physical interaction. In online admission system more
patients will get news about the hospital service and more people (former traditional admission system users) interest to
admission. ICT retrieve this health system using online health program.
Reverse-Patients use ICT based synchronous and asynchronous communication system and when internet is not
available then face some problems. In E-health and online health program, virtual health environment is created that
makes patients idle. In teleconferencing, lot of virtual meeting is created and that makes users no interest to physical
interaction.
ICT was used to develop machines such as the typewriter, telephone and most importantly, the computer. We now live
in an 'information age', a society that is heavily dependant upon the storage and communication of information.
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4. 2. Enhance Analysis of Health Sector in Society
In health and Health care, ICT offers the possibility of improving services while making significant cost savings. The
challenge is to provide care providers with the information they require at the time they need it. The Health
Information Strategy will provide a context to support health and disability strategies to make innovative use of
information to improve the health.
Information and communication technologies are at the service of a wide range of actors in the health sector, from
doctors, hospital managers, nurses, data processing specialists, social security administrators to - of course - patients
and citizens.
Advances in ICT are leading to a reduction in both the cost and size of sensors, monitors and other equipment thereby
allowing the emergence of both novel uses for existing technologies and applications of completely new technologies.
The use of ICT in hospitals and surgeries has done a lot to improve patient care and the overall quality of care in health
services. One example of the way ICT has changed health care is the way in which patients records and medical
information are stored in hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, dentists etc.
2.1 Patient Records
Using computers to store patient’s information has many good points. The first of these is that by having patients’
information stored on a computer, the files do not get tatty like paper folders would. This means that the doctor can
read each patient’s information easily. Also, by storing the files on the computer, it takes up a lot less space then it
would if you had the paper files on shelves. The information for each patient can easily be found (by searching for the
patient’s own record) and so this leaves more time for the doctor to see patients. The files are less likely to get lost or
misplaced, but if this happens, files should have been backed up so that the patient’s information is not permanently
lost. This is very important as if a patient’s medical information is lost or stolen, the patient could be given a wrong
medicine. By using an automatic backup system, you can always be sure that there is a backup of the information.
Another good point about storing these files on computers is that the information would be much safer than if the files
were on paper. The information can be protected by passwords, which only the doctor and the other necessary people
would know. This way, it is much less likely that the files would be seen by anyone who is not supposed to see them.
This password would have to be changed regularly to avoid people finding out what it is
2.2 Prescribing medicines
Now, patient’s prescriptions can be printed out from a computer and can be accessed electronically. The doctors can
use online features to find the best medicine for the patient’s illness and calculate the exact dosage needed and the
timing that the drug needs to be taken. This means that the patient has the correct dosage of medicine and so is more
likely to recover quickly. It also means that expensive drugs are not being wasted by doctors prescribing to high a
dosage, or too regular timing. The use of computers also means that doctors can quickly find out about new
developments or drugs. It is also much quicker for a doctor to print out a copy after filling it in on the computer, than to
fill it in by hand
2.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care
Today, computers in hospitals have greatly improved patient care. Now, critically ill patients are wired up to machines
which monitor their pulse, breathing, heart rate etc these machines can be programmed to take continuous readings of
these things (heart, pulse, breathing rate) rather than intermittent readings which used to be done manually by the nurses
and doctors. This means that a patient can be monitored 24 hours a day. It also means that if the heart, pulse or
breathing rates go out of the normal range, this is immediately detected and an alarm is sounded which alerts nurses and
doctors for intervention.
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5. 2.4 Teleconferencing
Enhance video collaboration to communicate and exchange information two or more locations to interact via two way
video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It could be a good way of doctors linking up with people from remote
areas who have to travel a long way to visit a doctor. Teleconferencing would allow the doctor to see what kind of state
the patient is in and then would be able to decide whether they need to go to the doctors or not. Communication
between the home office and field staffs is maximized.In on-line Health Service, patients can interact with doctors by
teleconferencing with voice and picture. Orally is conducted by teleconferencing and it is cost effective approach.
3. Obsolesce Analysis of Health Sector in Society
3.1 Patient Records
Patients’ records were stored in paper files in doctors’ surgeries, dentists and hospitals. These paper records would be
stored in card folders, which would probably be kept on shelves in the surgery or hospital. Each patient would have
their own personal folder and each of the patients’ records would be stored alphabetically (usually by surname). These
folders could also very easily get lost. Because there are so many folders (each patient has their own) it would be easy
to misplace a folder or put it back on the shelf in the wrong place, so when it comes to looking for that folder, it cannot
be easily found. If a patient’s medical records are lost, there is no other way of seeing their past medical history and
this could lead to a wrong diagnosis, maybe being prescribed medicine which a patient is allergic to, but didn’t know, or
couldn’t remember (this information would have been stored in the file). So using paper based asynchronous
communication is not reliable and flexible. For this reason, patient’s admission status through traditional paper become
obsolete and also may be obsolete traditional notice board information.
3.2 Prescribing medicines
A doctor would prescribe medicines for a patient by looking up information in textbooks, looking at medical records
(on paper) of previous treatments that the patient has had and looking at other patients’ responses to the medicine. This
would be extremely time consuming for the doctor. Also, as each person is an individual, it is impossible to tell, from
other people’s response to the medicine, whether it would be suitable. It is also difficult to tell what dosage of the
medicine the patient needs, and this could lead to the illness not being cured quickly enough and may cause other side
effects. So this system based asynchronous communication is not reliable and flexible. For this reason, prescribing
medicines status becomes obsolete.
3.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care
Critically ill patients are wired up to machines which monitor their pulse, breathing, heart rate etc always doctors or
nurses alert their patients. For this reason this system becomes obsolete.
3.4 Teleconferencing
Video and audio streaming can be used to disseminate information to patient, and can also enable patient to see and
speak with the doctor via the internet rather than telephone. Moreover, quot;teleconferencing centresquot; are coming to our
health sector on society and be considered as obsolete that patient today doesn't know how to dial a phone.
Face-to-face (FTF) interaction is the traditional standard on which we base our communication with clientele groups,
advisory boards, and Extension colleagues. However, FTF meetings may be an inefficient and costly way to conduct
patient and doctor. In case of teleconferencing, Traditional i.e. face to face meeting become obsolete.
4. Retrieve Analysis of Health Sector in Society
4.1 Patient Records
In analog world, people generally use traditional communication medium like paper sheet for synchronous and
asynchronous communication. But this user’s number is decreases because of some fault in asynchronous and
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6. synchronous communication media such as missing information, cost etc. Now, ICT interact the Digital world to the
analog world and increase the digital immigrants. Digital immigrants use online service instead of traditional
synchronous and asynchronous communication medium and more users will get information easily. Online service is
reliable and flexible to use as a communication medium. More digital native immigrants will start approaching the
world of the health sector on society and digital native immigrants increases day by day.
4.2 Prescribing medicines
Patients will access to virtual doctor’s chamber through our online health service program. Online health service
program will liberate your patients from the challenges of managing doctor’s chamber-based treatment. Our online
health system delivers easy and quick treatment for our facility. For this reason it recovers the doctor’s chamber
creating a virtual chamber based treatment.
4.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care
Our hospitals have greatly improved patient care. Critically ill patients are wired up to machines which monitor their
pulse, breathing, heart rate etc these machines can be programmed to take continuous readings of these things (heart,
pulse, breathing rate) rather than intermittent readings which used to be done manually by the nurses and doctors. This
means that a patient can be monitored 24 hours a day. It also means that if the heart, pulse or breathing rates go out of
the normal range, this is immediately detected and an alarm is sounded which alerts nurses and doctors for intervention.
For this reason it recovers the doctor and nurse valuable time.
4.4 Teleconferencing
People (including outside specialized doctors) who wouldn't normally attend a distant FTF meeting with patient and
provide a good instruction in meeting. Teleconferencing recovers these valuable specialized doctors meeting by
Teleconferencing. More treatment will get meeting and former FTF meeting will start approaching the world of the
specialized doctor’s specific domain.
Teleconferencing technologies enable instruction to be received simultaneously by multiple, geographically dispersed
treatment (i.e., synchronous treatment). All of these teleconferencing technologies can increase productivity, reduce
travel costs, and improve the quality of meeting with respect to the traditional meeting. Video teleconferencing enables
individuals or groups in distant locations to hold virtual meetings while sharing real-time video between the patients.
Users did not interest to arrange traditional meeting now it is possible using teleconferencing.
5. Reverse Analysis of Health Sector in Society
5.1 Patient Records
Synchronous and asynchronous communication with health communities via traditional system i.e. paper based system
will disappear. Few synchronous and asynchronous communication medium with limited services and lot of ICT related
synchronous and asynchronous communication medium with flexible in the field of health sector on society. Moreover,
our digital immigrants have to know how to use the ICT based communication medium. There are some problems arise
to ICT based communication medium such as Security risk: virus and worm attacks via the file transfer, privacy
concerns, can be distracting, lack of administration etc.
5.2 Prescribing medicines
Online Prescribing program makes patients self dependent and totally online oriented treatment and medicine and
online oriented treatment and medicine don’t have the motivating force that doctors have. Online oriented treatment and
medicine can’t provide new treatment as well as good doctors and if left to treatment at their proper service, many
patients would fall behind.
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7. 5.3 Patient Care- Caring for patients in intensive care
Our hospitals have greatly improved patient care. Critically ill patients are wired up to machines which monitor their
pulse, breathing, heart rate etc these machines can be programmed to take continuous readings of these things (heart,
pulse, breathing rate) rather than intermittent readings which used to be done manually by the nurses and doctors. This
means that a patient can be monitored 24 hours a day. There are some problems arise to ICT based communication
medium such as security risk: uncertainly machines fault, virus and worm attacks.
5.4 Teleconferencing
Group members participate more equally in well moderated teleconferences than in an FTF meeting. Lot of virtual
teleconferencing environment is created for group meeting instead of FTF meeting. Teleconferencing cannot interact on
a personal level e.g. fuller explanation. This makes a group meeting something boring.
6. Conclusion
This project represents the overall effect of Information and Communication Technologies [ICTs] in the field of health
sector on society. Moreover, ICT’s offer a wide scale of tools which lead in present to the change of the teaching
process from one closed and rigid, oriented on doctor, to an inciting and interactive treatment process centred on
patients. In the health sector, the smart use of ICT can provider a practical and enabling solution, fully supported and
connected for improving the quality and quality of health. ICT preparing health sector for a future in which old
treatment process activity obsolete or may be obsolete. In the reverse, ICT is very expensive - not all patients get the
same opportunities and treatments may affect lot of distractions. More over patients treatment the wrong things because
of hacking and creating viruses. Finally, It is generally agreed that ICT is a crucial resource in health.
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