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Health Records Going Digital
Wired.com is running a story about a 57-year-old lady who is among an estimated 10,000 people using a new on-line system to store her health record on-line. The company providing her with the service is iHealthRecord. On their web site, users can store their record for free in personalized and password-protected accounts. In addition to the web site, iHealthRecord offers emergency cards that can be carried by its users and used by a doctor to quickly obtain access to their records in the event of an emergency.
Despite the obvious utility of such a tool, physicians are not having the easiest time making the switch to the world of 1’s and 0’s. The article says that David Brailer, the federal government’s health-information technology coordinator, thinks that the cost of new technology and retraining of staff is too formidable for many small practices and therefore poses a serious problem for his vision of the nation moving to digital medical records over the next 10 years.
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what about wounds? by Liz_Miracle
It sounds like a great idea. . . never forget what meds I’m on, how long I’ve been on them etc. But there are problems. I believe a big problem with this is going to be the design of the software used itself.
For instance, at Medical City in Dallas they rely solely on electronic data entry for physical therapy notes. Only one problem, wound care falls under physical therapy. You think, why is this a problem? If they design the program so that you can enter wound dimensions, location, type of drainage etc. it should be fine. This sounds even better for those with chronic or recurring wounds. . .how big was it in February of 05? what about March of 06? However there is a flaw. There’s absolutely no way to describe exactly where the wound is and if anyone has ever seen lower extremity venous ulcers that are irregular and heal and reopen often, this can be very difficult. It is almost necessary to either take a photograph of the ulcers, or map them out using some sort of clear film on which you can delineate the wound borders. The programs don’t allow for this. Sure you get all your medical info in paragraph form, but what about photos of the injury?
So I guess what I’m saying is that this program sounds great for Joe Shmo or even a patient with fibromyalgia but for patients in which visuals are needed, there is work to be done.