Medical science has made revolutionary changes in lite past decades. Contemporaneously however, healthcare has made incremental changes ai best. One area within healthcare that best exemplifies this is the OR. The growing discrepancy between the revolutionary changes in medicine and the minimal changes in healthcare processes is leading to inefficient and ineffective healthcare deliver and one if not the significant contributor to the exponentially increasing costs plaguing healthcare globally. Significant quantities of data and information permeate the healthcare industry, yet the healthcare industry has not maximized this data resource by fully embraced key business management processes or techniques (such as knowledge management, data mining, business intelligence or business analytics) to capitalize on realizing the full value of this data/information resource to re-engineer processes. The construct of the intelligence continuum, a MObius of sophisticated tools, techniques and process providesa systematic mechanism for healthcare organizations to facilitate superior clinical practice and administrative management, is introduced. Further, the case example of the orthopedic OR is used to illustrate the power of the intelligent continuum (IC) in effecting more efficient and effective healthcare processes to ensue and thereby enabling healthcare to make evolutionary changes.
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