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H ospital Information Systems-A Concise Study is possibly the

only book on the subject by an Indian author and publisher and deals with an important subject of health informatics. The book has chapters on rudimentary hospital Information system, eHealth-care, managing hospitals with informa-

tion, quantitative techniques for decision support, hospitals & quality, people stress in hospital management, healthcare back-drop, changing world & healthcare, strat-egy, IT & healthcare. According to the author, managing patients and hospital together is what a hospital information system is designed for! The software en-sures that the applications involved in the workflow of health services, are based on accuracy in recording patient’s demogra-phy and data, and accountability of hospi-tal management. Thus, a good HIS serves as a backbone of the Hospital capturing, storing, accessing and transferring infor-mation amongst all stakeholders involved in patient care.

Written in a bulleted format, this book enlightens the reader to overcome the shortcomings of hospital industry such as inadequate access to medical facilities, unassessed quality, and shortage of skilled manpower. The book explains how infor-mation (like medical records or admin-istrative records) can be stored, accessed and retrieved promptly; how a patient’s record can be generated easily based on demography, biodata,gender, age, and so on; how the system can help to monitor a patient’s treatment procedure-starting from his/her ailment history, to present health condition, to recovery.

The book also efficiently addresses the issues like security of the system and the investment strategies. Besides, the appendices on topics like new business models and applications, and overview of hospitals, add on to the applicative knowledge on the subject.

Hospital Information Systems: A Concise Study

By Gp Capt (Dr) Sanjeev Sood

The book has list of abbreviations in the beginning and suggested reading in the end, but no glossary of terms or an in-dex. There are several schematic diagrams in B and W to explain the contents.

Intended readersIntended for the students of Hospital information Systems (HIS)/Hospital Administration or an equivalent training programme, the book is well-suited for the healthcare practioners (small or large organizations) so that they can streamline their workflow process. The book will also be equally beneficial for the instructor’s teaching Hospital Administration in vari-ous healthcare and management institutes.

About authorThe author SA Kelkar is an Adjunct Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, serving both in Department of Computer Science and Engineering and S J Mehta School of Management. He has an extensive teaching experience in the areas of Information Systems, software engineering, IT project management and has authored several books.

iCT in healthcare is not only a big enabler and differentiator but has

revolutionised the way the healthcare is delivered

Title: Hospital Information Sys-tems: A Concise Study Publisher: Prentice Hall IndiaAuthors: S A Kelkar1SBN: 978-81-203-4083-1Price: `450.00Edition: 2010Pages: 774

Gp Capt (Dr) Sanjeev Sood Health Systems Administrator, Jodhpur

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