DIGI SOCIETY

Digitalization at healthcare

When I started working at healthcare we only have one health care system. All patient information was the same place. Now there are multiple health care systems and systems aren’t working collaboration with each other. Sometimes we must send patient information secured email to another welfare area. This is very poor thing at this moment. Why every welfare area has to be own patient health care systems? Why we don’t make one big health care system, that we all can have? I addmit that big systems has risks. For example when we are looking at information security. If all finns patient information is all the same place it’s very big disaster if someone hacked the system. Or maybe the solution could be somekind of program to transfer safely patient information to another health care system.

GDPR

GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, has many important benefits in healthcare, but also some challanges that can affect daily work. The legislation improves the protection and security of patient data, which is especially important because healthcare handles sensitive information such as diagnoses, laboratory results, medications and personal health histories. GDPR ensures that these informations are handled carefully, only for the intended purposes, and lawfully, which increases patients’ sense of safety.

Patients’ rights to their own data are also strenghtened under GDPR. Patients can check their own health records, request correction of mistakes, and know how their data is being used. This increases patient involvement in their own care and improves their participation in the treatment process. GDPR also increases trust in the healthcare system, because patients can be sure their personal information is secure and will not be shared without permission. The legislation also clarifies responsabilities: who is responsible for handling data and how it may be used. This guides healthcare professionals to act consistently, which supports both patient safety and quality of care.

However, GDPR also brings many challanges and drawbacks. It increases administrativ work, because every data processing and transfer must be documented carefully. This can burden already busy healthcare staff and reduce the time available for actual patient care. Organizations also need to invest in staff training and information systems, which increases costs and requires resources. Strict regulations and their interpretational ambiguity can slow down the flow of information between units, and sometimes data is not shared even when it would be necessary for patient care.

Additionally, GDPR can make research and development more difficult, because using patient data often requires anonymization and complex approval processes. This takes time and resources and can slow down innovations in healthcare. While the regulations aim to protect patients from misuse, they can also create extra burocracy and put pressure on professionals if the rules are not applied flexibly.

In summary, GDPR provides effective protection for patients in healthcare, strengthens data privacy, increases trust, and clarifies responsibilities. At the same time, it brings challanges, such as extra administrativ work, costs, slower information flow, and limitations for research. Therefore, applying GDPR requires balance: its goal is to protect patients and improve the quality of care, while ensuring that healthcare operations remain effective and flexible.

Chat GBT

I asked chat GBT what laboratory assistant do at healthcare. Answer that i got was correct. AI told what laboratory assistant do at the laboratory. The job description emphasized quality. That is very important notification. Working at laboratory assistant we must make very carefully and ensure quality at our work.

Chat GBT didn’t give me answer that laboratory assistant also take multiple samples example blood samples, urine samples, gynecological samples. That is also thing that most of laboratory assistants do. So I didn’t get only correct answers. Maybe it’s because other countries where laboratory assistants work, dont take samples as much as in Finland.

I asked at chat GBT where did information came from. I get answer that information comes what GBT have learned before. Information isn’t collected at internet and it’s not real time information. Information comes previously learned data from chat GPT users, books, an articles and so on.

I like Chat GBT and AI, it’s fun to talk about with AI. Personally I don’t believe everything what chat GBT says. I also have concerned that people have been used AI wrong. Example people make video’s with AI. They look really authentic, and people believed those video. My concern is that can we later on noticed what is wrong and right?

Self evaluation

During the assignment, I learned that digitalisation speeds up information flow and reduces the risk of errors, for example through laboratory information systems. I also realized that new technologies, such as ChatGPT, can be usefull tools for information retrival and learning, but their use requires critical evaluation of the reliabilty of sources.

GDPR legislation was an important topic in the assignment. I understood its significance in protecting patient data and building trust in healthcare. At the same time, I recognized its challanges, such as increased administrative workload and potential delays in information flow and research.

Overall, the assignment strengthened my understanding of the opportunities and challanges of digitalisation in healthcare and provided a foundation for further study and professional reflection, particulary regarding patient safety and data protection.

I commented these blogs DIGI SOCIETY – Niina’s site and DIGI SOCIETY – Emmi`s site