Improvement of the ipad as an electronic medical tool creative writing examples

Introduction

An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is the patient’s medical history in an electronic form replacing the paper form version. Traditionally used it contains information about a patient within a single clinic. It contains information about the patient’s previous visits, appointments, diagnosis, and prescription as observed by a doctor in the clinic. On the other hand, an Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an electronic version of a patient’s medical records in a more general manner. Several institutions and doctors who have happened to treat the patient could share the information contained in an EHR. This information ranges from the patient’s medical history, prescriptions, medical institutions, and doctors to future appointments and vaccination schedules. Authorized agents to make sure that regular updates of the records are being done and synchronization of the information could manage EHR. In both the EMR and EHR, the medical records are not shared with anyone who is not allowed to access the information to guard on the information privacy of the user.
The revolution in EMR has been greatly enhanced by the changes in technology and the change by medical institutions in their patient data collection strategies. Doctors have realized that with mobile devices and tablets, patient information can be easily collected, shared, and disbursed to other relevant players in a manner that reduces errors and the information is in a good format visual, audio, or pictorial. Other key advantages of use of electronic medical records are that it is easy to track patient data within a given duration, management appointments and monitor patient’s response to treatment. Studies also indicate that competition among the various medical institutions involve has tremendously increased and will continue which will be to the advantage of the patients. However, the growth of this sector has come under serious critics specifically citing HIPAA Security Rule that discourages the use of electronic devices such as mobile phones, ipads and tablets as the information on those gadgets is not usually encrypted and a copy of the data sent to another device is retained by the sender further risking the patient’s health information .

Speaker Notes

Slide 2: Introduction
– EMR (Electronic Medical Records) is a record on a patient health history managed by a single entity either a physician or clinic.
– EHR (Electronic Health Records) is a record covering much more details about a patient’s health history unlike an EMR. It consists of information about other institutions and physicians that the patient has encountered.
– Information in either the EMR or the EHR must be confidential and should not disclosed to unauthorized personnel by those managing the information.
– For EMR the doctor manages the information or the clinic staff while a dedicated institution specializing in that kind of could manage the EHR task. All the parties concerned are responsible for the safety, management and updating of that information.

Slide 3: Key issues concerning the use of Ipads in the Medical Field

– What are the major issues behind the use ipads in the medical field?
– Are physicians capable of adopting this technology for use in their duties?
– What are the advantages of the ipad?
– What are the rules and regulations that HIPAA states for the use of these gadgets and their security concerns to the patients’ concerned?
– What the future holds for the use ipads in the medical field?

Slide 4: Current hardware

– Mobile devices were used for communication between patients and physicians. This was through text messaging, voice calls and emails.
– The changes in technology brought about the use of the devices such as ipads and tablets.
– These devices added more capabilities to the practice such as cameras to take images, conduct video and voice calls and use as clients to the EHR servers.
– Pagers were used to contact doctors in case of emergencies. Their use has reduced due to the use of mobile phones and ipads that can transmit more information about the emergency other that just notifications.

Slide 5: Software to help

– Software for use in the ipads for EMR capabilities have been developed and continue to improve with time.
– The software have been specifically designed to run on mobile devices, tablets and ipads and also have the capability to communicate with the EHR servers via the internet. This is so that they can be able to synchronize and share information.
– An example of such software is MediTouch that allows doctors to read patient history records, download, upload clinical imagery for examination, and communicate with other professions in the field.

Slide 6: Communication Apps

– Communication between the patient and the physician is of great value to the improvement and recovery of the patient.
– Applications have been developed for this essential communication.
– The communication now can be done through emails, voice and video calls, and text messaging.
– This is usually done when the physician wants to get details about the patient or when giving dosage instructions to the patient.

Slide 7: HIPAA Regulations

– HIPAA stands for Insurance Portability and Accountability. It was established through an act in 1996 and is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the rules and regulations governing the use of electronic devices such as mobile phones and ipads in respect to patients’ information.
– The main issues HIPAA addresses are:
– Patient rights- HIPAA recognizes that patients have the right to inspect medical record in possession by medical institutions. Patients also have the right to authorize the release of their medical information and the right to specify to whom the information should be released.
– “ Protected Health Information (PHI) “–concerned with what aspects of a patient’s information should be guarded. Various elements concerning the user data are recognized such as name, phone number, dates, location, etc.
– “ Treatment, Payment, and Healthcare Operation (TPO)” – This aspect specifies that certain patient details may be disclosed without the consent of the patient. This could include billing information. The purpose of doing this is for quality control of the institutions affair
– Notification –This requires that medical institutions provide details of how and what elements of a patient’s records the institution will be accountable for

Slide 8: Coding on Ipad

– An ipad is a computational device that offers some considerable functionality more than a mobile phone.
– It is light, portable, has a display screen, a camera and a reasonable battery life.
– The screen is used for display purposes and for tactile input functions.
– The ipad has an internet connection that allows it to communicate with other devices on the network.

Slide 9: Positives to using Ipads as EMR client

– It is light and portable and offers some reasonable processing and storage capabilities.
– It has an internet connection that will allow it to synchronize information with the server storing the EMR records.
– Its visual, audio, text and video capabilities are perfectly suited for the various functions that physicians need to perform.
– Ipads are secure. This means that the data stored there will be safe against access by unauthorized users.

Slide 10: Possible Solutions

– Ipads can help to improve the medical services in the medical institutions.
– Physicians should embrace their use because of the various functionality they offer.
– With continued improvement in the technology, EMR and EHR will make the services offered by the medical institutions affordable and convenient.

Slide 11: Conclusion

– Continued improvement in technology, competition, and embracement of the ipads will continue for the next decade.
– This will also be enhanced by the improvement of software development that will be used in these ipads.

References:

Adil, R. (2012, Aug 2). The Usage of Tablets in the Healtcare Industry. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from Healthcare IT News: http://www. healthcareitnews. com/blog/usage-tablets-healthcare-industry? single-page= true
Catherine Barrett, Federal Working Group, Washington DC. (2011, October). Healthcare providers may violate HIPAA by using Mobile Devices to communicate with patient. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from ABA HEALTH eSOURCE: http://www. americanbar. org/newsletter/publications/aba_health_esource_home/aba_health_law_esource_1110_barrett. html
HealthIT. (n. d.). What is an Electronic Medical Record(EMR)? Retrieved March 5, 2013, from Benefits of EHRs: http://www. healthit. gov/providers-professionals/electronic-medical-records-emr
Stanford Univesity. (n. d.). HIPAA Physician Guide. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from HIPAA Physician Guide: http://www. stanford. edu/group/psylawseminar/HIPAAguide. htm