Information Management Process
This brief article discusses information management processes for health authority focusing on information communication technologies. Information is a vital tool for the health authority and its effective management is the most basic responsibility of administrative management. Information management process for the health authority may include the following stages as proposed by Akwetey (2011):
1. Collecting information. In health authority organisation information can be collected from application forms and other internal and external sources. Moreover, primary data collection can be initiated with the use of surveys, focus groups, experiments etc.
2. Processing information. This stage can be greatly assisted by the application of relevant analytical software and the level of sophistication of such software is rapidly increasing.
3. Analysing the information. Information on its own does not represent value in practical levels; therefore information needs to be transformed into knowledge through critical analysis.
4. Acting upon the information. This last stage in information management process is associated with developing recommendations according to analyses of information and application of recommendation in practice.
Dramatic development of information technology and intensive integration of internet in increasing range of organisational processes has increased the level of convenience and effectiveness of each stage in information management process. Specifically, information and communication technologies (ICT) represent an effective platform to be used in data collection, processing of information, and data analysis.
ICT applications can be divided into two categories: standard and specialised (Shane, 2008). Standard applications can be used in a wide range of industries and purposes and they include word pressing applications such as Microsoft Word and Text Document, database software such as Access, Oracle etc.
Specialist ICT applications, on the other hand, are applications that are industry-specific. Specialist applications available for the health authority include Electronic Patient Record Keeping (EPR), Medical Use Expert System (MYCIN) and others.
References
Akwetey, L.M. (2011) “Business Administration for Students & Managers” Trafford Publishing
Shane, S.A. (2008) “Technology Strategy for Managers and Enterpreneurs” Prentice Hall