Click here for part one on advancements in electronic medical records (EMRs).
In part two, we discuss how these advancements apply to you as a medical professional. Whether you are a nurse, doctor, technician or EMT, you are going to encounter electronic medical records in the near future, and they are going to shape how medical procedures work. Most medical professionals are dealing with EMR right now, and most are immensely frustrated with it. However, as referenced in part one, the current EMR technology is likely to move toward new developments. Let's discuss some of the changes that apply to you as a health care professional.
While most of these changes are going to occur slowly and take some unexpected turns along the way, they will eventually make your job easier. One piece of technology that's already being utilized is the personal health record (PHR). This service allows a patient to store his or her own health information, and it combines all the health information across a variety of physicians. This ensures that you have access to updated health information, as long as the patient has kept a record of it.
Platform-based technologies like the SMART Platform, as briefly referenced in part one, are sure to make life easier for health care professionals. Imagine one company that has total control over the features that you have on your medical records software. They have little incentive to provide for your exact needs because they have to cater to every one of their customers, and they don't have the manpower to design solutions tailored solely to your business. Not to mention, it is very expensive for you to change your software provider. On the other hand, the SMART Platform allows developers and smaller businesses to seek out tailor made solutions for you, if there is a viable market. And if competitors exist, user experience will improve because the company will want to have the best application with the best reviews, so that future customers continue to buy from them. Suddenly, you might go from something that looks like it operates on command line user interface to a more modern format.
As stated in part one, the intentions are there, but right now there aren't too many incentives for big companies that control medical records to make these changes. However electronic medical records will soon achieve their initial goal to make health care cheaper, more efficient, and give better results to patients.
