Book excerpt: A proven working model of healthcare IT as a transformative clinical and business engine—from one of the world’s leading healthcare organizations Exciting new technology is revolutionizing healthcare in the twenty-first century. This visionary guide by Cleveland Clinic’s esteemed CIO shows you how to design, implement, and maximize your organization’s IT systems to deliver fully integrated, coordinated, high-quality care. You’ll learn how to: • Collaborate with patients: Track and monitor patients’ progress and communicate with them any time, anywhere. • Coordinate multiple caregivers and care teams: Build a network of communication among healthcare professionals across disciplines in different locations who are working on a single patient case; and integrate various IT systems into a fully functioning network. • Optimize electronic medical records: Quickly pull up and share patient histories, test results, and other essential data to provide timely care; and expand real-time access to clinical data and research. • Use IT for competitive advantage: Enable live chats, virtual visits, and online second opinions; create a content-rich, user-friendly website; build a social media strategy that engages patients and caregivers alike. Using the latest advancements in IT, you’ll be able to access and apply a wide range of online tools and field-tested strategies to any organization. Go behind the scenes at Clinic Cleveland to see how caregivers executed their IT strategy in a working environment—and how patients benefitted as a result. You’ll find simple but powerful ways to expand your IT network and provide personal, one-on-one care to all of your patients, anywhere in the world. By connecting your patients with caregivers—and caregivers with each other—you’ll be better equipped to diagnose conditions, recommend treatments, and monitor patients in ways that weren’t even possible 10 years ago. And you’ll see a vision of where IT is headed in the Internet of Healthcare. This is the future of healthcare. It’s on your computer, your phone, your tablet, your network, and the world wide web. It’s the IT advantage that makes organizations like Cleveland Clinic so successful—and patients healthier and happier. It’s about time. IT’s About Patient Care.