Data management for a perioperative medicine practice

This article provides an overview of the possible uses of information technology to support a perioperative medicine service and describes the required investment for various solutions and the current issues confronted by the application of information technology in a health care environment. The extent to which a perioperative medicine practice requires information technology support for data management varies widely with the goals of the practice. The informational goals may range from the simple tracking of sentinel event rates or outcomes, such as ICU admission rates or hospital length of stay, to using a complete electronic medical record encompassing all aspects of patient care. Because the human and financial resource demand is orders of magnitude between these two extreme solutions, an honest assessment of the informational requirements and the available information technology support is a critical first step.