Information gathering and analysis has been central to the effective delivery of healthcare. Most of the information generated in healthcare organisations is centred around the patient and such information about individual patients are kept in confidential records known as medical records.
The information contained in these records include the patient details (such as name, sex, date of birth, occupation and address), the patient’s medical history and any other relevant history, and a complete report of each event with the patient, from signs and symptoms when first presenting, through diagnosis and investigations to treatment and outcome. Other relevant information and documentation also need to be added.
For a long while, healthcare organisations have kept paper-based records but they have their shortcomings, some of which include:
An increasingly mobile society means that people now change their family doctor more often and these paper records have to be physically to the new doctor’s practice.
It is difficult to find specific information in paper-based records, increasing the possibility of missing vital information that might be hidden within a cluster of non-relevant data.
Paper records are hand written and these might be difficult to read or interpret by healthcare professionals other than the author.
Paper records make the use of decision support systems extremely difficult especially during consultations.
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have been introduced to address these issues and it is now possible to store part or whole of a patient’s record on a computer.
To continue reading this article, please click on this website:
http://www.biohealthmatics.com/technologies/software/emr.aspx
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