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AACP Annual Meeting
2015-07-11 - 2015-07-15    
All Day
The AACP Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of academic pharmacy administrators, faculty and staff, and each year offers 70 or more educational programs that cut across [...]
Engage, Innovation in Patient Engagement
2015-07-14 - 2015-07-15    
All Day
MedCity ENGAGE is an executive-level event where the industry’s brightest minds and leading organizations discuss best-in-class approaches to advance patient engagement and healthcare delivery. ENGAGE is the [...]
mHealth + Telehealth World 2015
2015-07-20 - 2015-07-22    
All Day
The role of technology in health care is growing year after year. Join us at mHealth + Telehealth World 2015 to learn strategies to keep [...]
2015 OSEHRA Open Source Summit
2015-07-29 - 2015-07-31    
All Day
Join the Premier Open Source Health IT Summit! Looking to gain expertise in both public and private sector open source health IT?  Want to collaborate [...]
Events on 2015-07-11
AACP Annual Meeting
11 Jul 15
National Harbor, Maryland
Events on 2015-07-14
Events on 2015-07-20
Events on 2015-07-29
2015 OSEHRA Open Source Summit
29 Jul 15
Bethesda
Articles

May 15 : The Significance of EHR Systems in Global Health Care

internet health tools
Electronic health records (EHR) are the modern way of maintaining patients’ medical history on a reliable and secure platform to facilitate accurate diagnosis.They are also interchangeably termed as electronic medical records or electronic patient records by certain organizations. This modern way of keeping patient records is achieved through highly efficient electronically maintained systems that are outsourced from a third party supplier. As of right now, they are rather expensive, and not everyone can afford to adopt them.Let’s take a look at the range of patient data compiled by EHR systems:

  • Laboratory test results,
  • Medication and allergies,
  • Radiology images,
  • Demographics
  • Immunization status,
  • Medical history,
  • Personal statistics like age and weight,
  • Billing information,
  • Vital signs,
  • X-ray images,
  • Multiple reports and test results,
  • Graphs and charts,
  • Blood group and other bodily functions.

The data comprises detailed information that represents true facts and statistics based on the patient’s medical history. Over the years, medical records have had a history of being misplaced by patients, and that has been a cause of major concern for physicians who may have no idea about the history of someone’s ailments.

You can accurately diagnose whether the medical symptoms of a particular patient are due to a history of inhalant addiction or because of some malignant tumor that was removed earlier in his life.

Factors to Consider While Setting Up an EHR System:

  1. Size of the Organization – The objective is to ensure that the budgets support you. The setup of an EHR takes software systems that have a hefty cost attached to them. This makes integrating the EHR system a daunting task, and thus it is only feasible for large scale hospitals and medical institutions to utilize such a system.
  2. Costs –The cost of adopting EHR is relatively high and proper care must be taken while budgeting for the adoption.
  3. Multiple Factors Affecting Costs – The costs are affected by availability of staff. Your medical staff must be familiar and well-trained in the proper usage of the system. If your medical staff members are not trained, the additional cost of training them must be factored into your budget too.
  4. Software – One of the most important objectives is to ensure the software is being installed from a trustworthy vendor. Software programs in systems are prone to virus attacks and hackers can easily take over the system without you even knowing. Hence, sourcing the software from a reliable vendor is the best thing to do.
  5. Securing Permissions – For cross-border and overseas EHR usages, the legal implications are vast and complicated. Hence, familiarizing yourself with these legal matters will help you get around these issues with ease. This includes knowing what legal bodies sanction permission and holding correct documents in order to carry such a service, as the information being held is extremely confidential.

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