Mahmoud, Mohamed Fahmy2016-03-022016-03-022015-072013110115http://bspace.buid.ac.ae/handle/1234/784It’s not a secret that the healthcare industry is in transition. Countries worldwide are striving to achieve healthcare system reform to provide more affordable and better care for individuals and population. Additionally, to reduce waste and overall health care expenditure over the time. It’s become a must to have more coordinated, patient-centered and more efficient care delivery systems. Therefore, it is required to have industry consolidation by merging all entities involved in healthcare (e.g., patients, healthcare providers, payers, pharmacies, and laboratories) to form more integrated health systems. Healthcare systems that facilitate the accessing and sharing of health information, as well as to allow subsequent analysis of health data. Information technology plays a central role in achieving efficiencies and enhancing care delivery to meet these multi-faceted demands. This can be achieved by facilitating the flow of patient data throughout an expanding community of care, while also securing the information and rigorously protecting patient privacy. Integrated health systems can be achieved through a range of information technologies such as electronic health records and other clinical applications, data repositories, analytic tools, telehealth and connected biomedical devices. Most importantly, those solutions must rest on a foundation of technology, data and security standards that ensures confidentiality of personal health information. The dissertation will provide an integrated roadmap of the current and rapid changes in healthcare that are occurring in the advanced world. Then will apply this roadmap to the current status of healthcare system in a developing country to highlight the opportunities and risks.enhealth care reformHealth information Technology (Health IT)health InformaticsElectronic Health Records (EHRs)information-driven healthcareHealth Information Exchange (HIE)interoperabilityDissertation