Question

Briefly describe the triple aim and how HIT can support it, offering an example for each component of the triple aim.

Answer 1

The triple aim of healthcare has three components or aims:

• Improvement of patient experience of care
• improvement of populations' health
• Reduction of health care cost per capita

The triple aim has the aforesaid three dimensions but considered as a single aim.

Health information technology which is abbreviated as HIT is healthcare-associated information technology. It refers to the management of health information across computer systems and allows the exchange of data regarding the health between consumers, payers, providers, and quality monitors.

HIT can affect these dimensions of triple aim in a very effective way. The improvement of patient care can be supported by HIT as it allows communication between the patients and the providers by means of text messaging, emailing and other online portals. Further, it also provides information to the patient about the medical records and for the self-monitoring purpose.

Population health can also be improved by HIT as the data is shared and can be accessed by the stakeholders in healthcare. Hence, interpretation of the population and segregation of the population according to risk can be done. The population can be segregated into groups according to the care needs and categories of health.

The health-related data such as medical records and the history of the patient help in interpreting the patient diagnosis and care. This aspect of HIT directly affects the third dimension of triple aim, that is cost reduction. Clear and concise data helps to cut redundant costs in healthcare and relieves patients form extra cost.