(Oscar, 2012)Health care is changing almost as quickly as new technology becomes available. With smartphones, tablets, and wireless technology seemingly become faster and more efficient with each passing month, health care is struggling to keep pace . Clinicians now have access to their patients more then ever before, this is allowing for more timely and cost effective readings and consultations. Not only are patients seeing a benefit, but physician are able to see more patients in a shorter amount of time and often without having to be in the same room as the patient. This is giving physicians more flexibility with their lives and increasing profits.
Networking is one solution that is being looked at in the HITECH Act as a way to increase patient safety while reducing costs. A national network where patient data is stored and can be retrieved when a patient enters a new health care facility (Brown, 2010). This ability would allow clinical teams to have past medical history which would increase patient turnaround while ensuring that patients were not being treated with medication that could conflict with other medications or allergies.
A national electronic health record (EHR) is a scary idea to many people that have concerns with privacy. As an alternative many people are pushing for expansion of personal health informatics (PHI). PHI is anything that can be used by the patient to keep their own medical records at home and be mobile enough to be brought with them to any of their health visits, emergency visits, and scheduled procedures (Oscar, 2012). This technology can be housed in many different platforms, from jump drives to RFID chips. With the widespread adoption of smartphones many people think that there use is the key to this technology being accepted. Most people keep their phones on them at all times and could use their phones to send their data into different health care systems.
References:
Brown, B. (2010). What is a "certified EHR"? Journal of Health Care Compliance, 12(1), 31-32,65-67. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/228006517?accountid=32521
Cohen, L. (2012, July 12). 5 ways mhealth is revolutionizing healthcare. Bostlnno, Retrieved from http://bostinno.com/channels/5-ways-mhealth-is-revolutionizing-healthcare/
Oscar, R. (2012). How mobile technology helps meet MU. Health Management Technology, 33(9), 22-3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1041247255?accountid=32521
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