Information technology (IT) in

Surgery
Dr. C. O. Udemezue
MBBS; FWACS-Ortho
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
 Outline
• Introduction
• Means of information distribution
• Benefits of IT
• Disadvantages of IT
• Applications of IT
• Conclusion
 Introduction
• This is the use of computers and internet in
surgical research and practice
• It has revolutionized the practice of medicine
• It is currently almost impossible to practice
medicine without IT
 Introduction
• Two areas which received tremendous
improvement following introduction of IT are:
• Acquisition and storage of electronic medical
records
• Accessibility and rapid transmission of
healthcare information over the internet.
 Means of information distribution
• Internet service providers: WWW,
• E-mail
• Your always connected (YAC): for calls and
faxes
• Medical websites: medscape, PubMed
 Benefits of IT to patients
• It is patient-based
• It reduces cost
• Faster diagnosis
• More standardized treatment options
 Benefits of IT to doctors
• Provides learning tools
• Fast and better access to information
• Facilitates continuing professional development
• E-learning (digital video, audio, images and
texts).
• Provide the opportunity for primary healthcare
centres to have access to clinical specialists
through tele-conferencing.
 Disadvantages
• Ambiguous doctor-patient relationships
• Increase in vulnerability of patient’s privacy
and confidentiality
• Loss of tactile feedback.
• Information overload
• Misinformation
 Application of IT in surgery
• Medical records
• Research: search, editing, referencing etc
• Communication: mails, faxes, calls, video-
conferencing
• Minimal access surgeries
• Robotic surgeries
 Conclusion
• IT has made a great impact in the practice of
surgery.
• Efforts are being made to maintain the
medical ethics as information technology
evolves in surgery.