Technology has disrupted medical care perhaps as much as any other industry. We need only to go back twenty years and think about surgical procedures, childbirth, and transplants to realize how far medicine has come.
Much of the technology that changed these things has been in the form of “hardware – devices and instruments – and IoT combinations of hardware and software.
Consider as well the fact that doctors from different corners of the globe can now collaborate in real time, as surgeries are being conducted. Patients now wear electronic monitoring devices that send continual digital information to their healthcare providers about blood pressure and sugar levels and other monitoring devices remind patients to take their medications.
In fact, the predictions about the rate at which continued technological advances in medicine will occur are astounding.
Electronic Medical Records Technology – a Less-Publicized Disruption
One of the lesser discussed areas of health care has been the revolution that is occurring in electronic health records (EHR) implementation and management. But this area of health care is also promising to bring about some of the greatest improvements in health care, with major benefits to both providers and patients. While 2014 – 2016 saw major movement in this arena, trends that were begun and are still in early stages will see even more progression in 2017.
Goals of EHR/EMR
Most everyone in medicine agrees that the five overriding goals of EHR systems are as follows:
- Improvement of the quality, efficiency, and safety of health care.
- Inclusion and engagement of patients in their own care.
- Improved care collaboration among varied medical professionals treating the same patient.
- Improvement in overall public health.
- Assurance that patient privacy and confidentiality are protected.
With these goals in mind, here are four EHR trends to watch in 2017.
Clinicians are actively seeking innovative ways to capitalize on the prevalence of digital devices and opportunities to utilize the profusion of data generated by the patients.
The patients’ information that PGHD includes:
PGHD actually changes the way healthcare providers engage with their patients outside of a hospital, helps the experts plan new treatment procedures and makes the patients feel like a vital partner in care.
PGHD-Related Criteria in the Health IT Rules and Programs – An Outlook
According to the certification rule by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a certified EHR product must accredit a user to –
Discern, record and acquire information directly and electrically shared by patients or their designees
On the other hand, patients may also find these technologies rather handy benefiting from some of the following capabilities:
Scheduling appointments and completing registration forms remotely;
Emailing their healthcare providers using secure communication channels;
Having a full access to all laboratory results and analysis;
Accessing additional information and education material on different issues.
If speaking about patients, the key goal of the software is to:
Considering the recent federal government initiative offering over $4.4 billion in EHR Incentive Program payments (which you may be eligible for too, along with some 76.000 more providers), there shouldn’t be much else holding you back from adopting an EHR/EMR system at your facility.
The physical space saved by digitalizing all medical records.
Significant reduction of medical errors and improved results in patient management.
EMR Software Development: Tips To Get It Right From The Start
Implementing an EMR system in your organization is a long and often rocky pass.
We always expect our clients to have a detailed brief outlining different software modules and clear product expectations.
However, the masses need to be educated and informed about the concept of patient centricity, its importance, and future implications.
The physicians and the support staff must be properly trained to deliver patient-centric healthcare.
By using wireless technologies – personalized data and interactions initiated by the patient are managed by both the patient and the healthcare provider.
Que 7: Is Patient-Centered Care the Same as Person-Focused Care?
Through patient-centricity, physicians and the medical support staff can build strong relationships with their patients.
Further, individual data collected from different patients will help in the development of improved personalized care facilities.
