The pace at which modern health technology is expanding is truly something to behold. Not only are doctors finding new ways to treat patients, but better ways to manage healthcare solutions and quickly access medical records are making it easier for doctors to do their jobs quicker and more efficiently. Just the past week has seen several advancements in the way that doctors provide care to their patients, and we'll cover some of the top headlines below.
A collaboration between IBM and the Zambian Ministry of Health has resulted in granting the Zambian citizens access to 200 different lifesaving drugs, funded in part by UNICEF, the World Bank and the Department for International Development. Typically, third world countries are wreaked with easily preventable medical conditions that are untreatable due to the lack of even the most basic products like soap and aspirin. IBM is providing Zambia's Medical Stores Limited with a selection of mobile technologies and analytics solutions meant to manage the delivery and distribution of these critical resources.
Similarly within our own country, Avita Health System has paired up with NextGen Healthcare Information Systems to offer improved medical services and quality of care to two hospitals and 20 medical offices in the state of Ohio. In order to comply with both the Affordable Care Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, healthcare systems need to improve their overall efficiency at the same time as they are cutting costs. Avita's solution will help medical facilities achieve this while simultaneously improving the clinical, administration and revenue processes.
Meanwhile, Verizon has expanded their popular healthcare enabled services by adding five additional data centers to the network, as well as adding a host of services aimed at improving cloud and data center infrastructure. These extra data centers, combined with the efficiency afforded by an improved infrastructure, will help to efficiently store and safeguard patients' medical records and health information. It will also allow doctors on the Verizon network to access the information they need much faster.
As all of these advancements continue to change the world of medicine, it is critically important for medical centers to keep up to date and on top of these changes. Modern healthcare relies on several new advancements, and medical centers that don't keep in touch with things like Electronic Health Records (EHR) and telemedicine will be outperformed by those that do, and will ultimately provide a poorer experience for patients and their families.
