Computers are widely used across all areas of healthcare. They are used by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to record patient notes, transmit orders, view medication profiles, and more. Computers also play important roles in medical imaging like EKGs, echocardiograms, CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds. Databases store patient information and ensure confidentiality, while bioinformatics uses computers to analyze genetic and biomolecular data to better understand diseases. Overall, computers are essential tools in healthcare that improve efficiency, expand access to care, and advance medical research and treatment.

1. Computer
Applications in
Health Care
Exploring Biotechnology
December 2013

2. Computers are EVERYWHERE
• Doctors use computers to record progress notes.
• Nurses use computers to transmit orders to other
departments and in patient care
• Pharmacists use computers to order medication
and view a patient profile.
• For the most part, ALL HEALTHCARE
WORKERS use computers.

3. 2. Information Systems
• Accounting – saves time and money
• Scheduling – appointments
• Monitoring – blood pressure, heartbeat
• Databases
– A database is an organized collection of
information
– Information entered in areas called fields
– Extensive use of databases in biotech

4. 3. Confidentiality
• Confidentiality of
patient information
must be
strictly enforced.
• Access codes and passwords are used.
• Only authorized workers have access to patient information.
• Confidentiality- the principle in medical ethics that the information a
patient reveals to a health care provider is private and has limits on
how and when it can be disclosed to a third party.

5. 4. Medical Laboratory
• Computers used to
analyze DNA
– Blood
– Urine
• Used to test for disease
and genetic disorders
• Can run as many as
500 specimens per
hour

6. 5. Electrocardiogram (EKG or
ECG)
• Computer provides a printout
of electrical activity of patient’s
heart
• Computer can also “read” the EKG – tell the
reader what the EKG means. This used to be
done by the doctor.
• An EKG can be done at a remote location
and sent to a doctor thousands of miles away.

7. 5. Echocardiogram
• Computer directs sound
waves into the heart, then
converts the reflection of the
waves into an image of the
heart.
• Used to reveal heart problems
– valve problems,
– defects in the heart wall, etc.

8. 6. Computerized Tomography (CT)
• It’s a computerized body scanner
• Shows cross-section views
• Allows us to see bone and body tissues
• Helps us find tumors

9. 7. Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI)
• It’s a body scanner that uses nuclear
magnets instead of x-rays
• Patient is placed in a large, circular
magnet that measures the activity of
hydrogen ions and converts it to a picture
• Can see tumors, blood moving through
veins

10. 8. Ultrasonography
• Uses high frequency sound waves
• Body parts are viewed on a
computer screen and printed on
photo paper
• Used during
pregnancy

11. 9. Telemedicine
• Includes remote monitoring devices and
videoconferencing
• Used to connect specialists to patients in
remote locations
• Can transmit information from prisons, an
ambulance, and other challenging
locations
• Families can watch the care of high-risk
newborns who are still in the hospital

12. 10. Bioinformatics
• The use of computers to
store, retrieve, analyze or
predict the composition or
the structure of
biomolecules.
• "Biomolecules" include your
genetic material---nucleic
acids---and the products of
your genes: proteins.

13. Human Genome Project
• Computers play an important role in the Human
Genome Project.
• The goals of the Human Genome Project are:
– identify all the approximate 30,000 genes in
human DNA,
– determine the sequences of the 3
billion chemical base pairs that
make up human DNA,
– store this information in databases,
– improve tools for data analysis.

14. Computers in Biotech
• IBM is working on a supercomputer called
Blue Gene which may decipher some of
the mystery behind how proteins work.
• “Computational biology," or
"bioinformatics," can collect information
"without having to do the experiment” This
could make it easier to design drugs
because we can make a reasonable
prediction of the structure with a computer.

15. Bioinformatics
• Bioinformatics is the term
coined for the new field that
merges biology, computer
science, and information
technology to manage and
analyze data, with the
ultimate goal of
understanding and modeling
living systems.

16. Computers Play an Important
Role in Healthcare –
Today and in the Future