There have been many advances within the medical field recently, and one of the most dominant is the introduction of IT into the field. As the article states, the HITECH legislation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has allocated over $20 billion for the adoption of health IT. E-health records and e-prescription systems enable patients to access medical records wherever they are, and they reduce the risk of medical errors. Health IT includes systems that can check for adverse reactions to medication as well as confirm medical IDs, which ensure that patients receive the proper medical care. Health IT also is able to keep patients out of the hospital and treat them at home, which is useful for chronically ill and elderly patients.
Examples of Health IT are e-medical records and mobile prescribing. Doctors can access medical records and send prescriptions to pharmacies via their mobile smartphones or laptops, which enables the speedy and accurate delivery of prescriptions. E-medical records are particularly useful for doctors who are at home and on call, because it enables them to keep track of current patients and monitor their conditions from their own homes. E-prescribing also gives the opportunity to cell service providers to create applications on their cell phones and make a profit off of them from medical professionals and patients. AT&T is one such company that has already entered this market. RFID devices are also being used by hospitals and other medical facilities. They can keep track of both patients and medical devices. This enables hospital staff to know when patients have left a specific ward, and it ensures that all equipment can be found quickly in the case of an emergency. Before drugs are administered, health care providers have begun to make use of Bedside Medication Barcode Scanning, which helps ensure that patients are receiving the proper drugs and avoids medical errors.
Medical errors have been the cause of many avoidable deaths, and the medical profession is constantly trying to minimize them and avoid them from being repeated. According to the article, a study published nearly 10 years ago estimated that close to 98,000 Americans die each year due to preventable medical mistakes. Since the baby boomers are now elderly and in need of more health care, this is a time with the opportunity for many more such mistakes. Medication error tracking is one such method used by doctors to prevent them. The article discusses a clinical decision support tool called Monarch, created by Datawatch. Tools such as this help to analyze data to discover the reason for medical mistakes, and they allow healthcare providers to discover ways to avoid these mistakes in the future, through methods such as health process modifications and increased staff training.
These health care advances have the potential to drastically improve health care within the US. They give the opportunity for IT tech companies to make an enormous profit, because these technologies will quickly become commonplace in every medical institution.
Eileen Browne
http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/healthcare/patient/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700175&itc=ref-true
1 comment:
Electronic medical records (or EMRs) are increasingly popular in almost every doctor’s office across the United States. While I have been inundated both by other people and outside news sources of all the benefits of EMRs, I still have my doubts regarding the safety of our medical information in these online systems. The positive effects of EMRs are numerous, including more efficient prescription reception and more accurate medical prescriptions and procedures. People can have faster and easier access to their medical histories, as can their employers or other doctors. The increased speed and accuracy with which we can transfer our medical history will improve the way medical practices are conducted throughout the country, since only 20% of American hospitals currently have EMRs in use (Worthen). However, there are concerns that must be considered as a consequence of this more efficient means of communication between medical providers and patients. For example, one of my concerns involves privacy- for including the entirety of a person’s medical history in one consolidated document, if placed in the wrong, hands, could cause a lot of damage. This concern is especially heightened among those involved with Indian companies who wish for American hospitals and health care providers to outsource the management and filing of their databases overseas. This group of opponents includes George Conklin, CIO of Christus Health, who insists that when information is sent over to India, the data is “not subject to the same rigorous laws” as those in the United States (Worthen). This article continues to describe how the more complex coding of a hospital’s records requires intimate knowledge of the facility, which is something that cannot be easily outsourced (Worthen). As a result, EMRs at this point appear to have benefits that greatly exceed the possible danger inherent in placing so much trust in technology. However, this technology, especially in its introductory phases to new hospitals, should not be seen as fool-proof and protected information. If credit card numbers can be stolen, one may be able to steal a person’s EMR as well. Consumers that are surrounded by technology that replaces less efficient forms of information compilation does provide some inherent risks along with its benefits.
Worthen, Ben, and Amol Sharma. "Qualms Arise Over Outsourcing Of Electronic Medical Records.” The Wall Street Journal. 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. .
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