IT Tools and Performance Indicators: A Qualitative Overview of Managerial, Organizational, Financial Strategies within Healthcare Sector

Abstract

The work examines the different healthcare contexts in which innovation has been applied, or could be applied, resulting in cost containment and increased quality and efficiency of medical care services. In addition, the different factors influencing the adoption of information technologies in the national healthcare systems of the European Union are discussed, in particular as regards the existence of structural barriers. Innovation is defined as the creation of something still not existing, to be uses for new products and services or for more efficient processes and is therefore linked to change, because innovation requires change. Information technology (IT) is described as the acquisition, processing and storage of data by a computing product. This work qualitatively analyses use cases, which are in turn based on quantitative research methodologies (i.e. performance indicators), commonly based on the manipulation of independent variables to generate statistically analyzable data, which guarantees objectivity and provides greater data reliability. Studies have been conducted to observe current trends in access to information technology across different age groups, to detect the existence of correlations between Internet users and online healthcare information searches. In this work, several Italian initiatives for the diffusion of IT applications in the healthcare sector have been analyzed. Some of the ongoing pilot projects include the collaboration of the Politecnico di Milano, through the establishment of the Laboratory of Biomedical Technologies (TBMLab), and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, to carry out research on eHealth activities and to promote the development of home automation systems for patients with disabilities. The HHC-MOTES model should also be noted, which aims to analyze the implementation of IT in the healthcare (HHC) sector from the point of view of sustainability in the management, organizational, technological, environmental and social fields (MOTES).