The business world has learned several hard lessons over the past decade when faced with the need to preserve critical business data. Words like “redundancy” and “continuity” have become the watchwords of the information technology professional and the corporate CFO. The time required to perform daily and even hourly backups is no longer perceived as waste, but as time well spent. Where once computer vendors had to argue the benefits of offsite storage, corporate buyers now demand such compatibility of services.
Corporate healthcare has also learned these lessons, but for reasons that are inexplicable to those of us who use systems every day, this level of security and redundancy does not extend to the most critical healthcare data, the patient’s medical record. Electronic medical records certainly provide a higher level of data security and redundancy than their paper-based predecessors, but the kind of dual-storage data verification used for the most critical business information doesn’t exist for consumer medical records. patients. We have learned in the disaster field office that if a system is going to fail, it will fail at its weakest link.
In 1999, the Institutes of Medicine published a report titled; Err is Human and started the national debate on patient safety. The Institute of Medicine report highlighted a number of areas of concern, chief among them medication errors and wrong-site surgery. Now eight years and dozens of regulations later, the CEO of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) has revealed that wrong-site surgery has not decreased, but has increased.
Unfortunately, healthcare professionals, despite their best efforts, fail to create the systems that will ensure your safety in the hospital. Few people are able to remember the complete and detailed treatment plan for each patient under their care. Medical records exist to ensure that critical information is at the fingertips of caregivers. The problem with today’s medical records is that they are based on a century old technology, paper. The risk of a medical error or complication increases when the medical history is incomplete or non-existent. Illegible handwriting and failure to cross-reference drugs for incompatibility only add to the danger.
Would you give your money to a bank that kept your financial records in a dusty, handwritten ledger? Would you get on a plane where the captain navigates with a paper map and a sextant?
Technology has come to the aid of the patient both in the doctor’s office and in the hospital. The Associated Press’s Kevin Freking recently reported on the first major corporate sponsorship of portable electronic medical records. Applied Materials, BP America, Inc., Intel Corp., Pitney Bowes and Wal-Mart will enroll employees in a central database to maintain health records in an effort to eliminate duplication, omission and error.
This is a concept that is supported by President Bush and the National Academy of Sciences – Institute of Medicine. The system not only collects information from medical records and reports into a central repository, but individuals will be able to provide personal and family information to augment registration. This type of system is planned by the White House as a national standard by 2014 and is required for implementation by health care providers by 2008. The problem with this online repository database is that it relies on the Internet and, although it can only be accessed from an Internet portal. , it’s not really portable. You can’t carry it in your hand.
So how can the medical record be validated at each patient encounter, particularly when patients go from one doctor to another as required by their illness, job or insurance coverage?
What if this vital data was contained in a watch, pendant or bracelet that you wear wherever you go?
What if every time your electronic medical record was accessed, it was compared to the data you used, and any differences required your health care provider to reconcile the information?
W. David Stephenson of Stevenson Strategies made the fantastic suggestion that people carry their medical records on secure U3-enabled USB drives. According to Mr. Stephenson:
“This sounds like a true win-win technology that hits my sweet spot and, in the event of a disaster, a literal and figurative lifeline, because you’ll not only have your medical records at hand, but all of your critical applications and business files as well.” . as well as.”
Thanks to the falling cost of computer memory and USB flash drives, the first 1 Gigabyte Portable Health Record (PHR) wristband has hit the market. A personal health record is a software/hardware solution used to store personal information, insurance data, medical records, and medical images. In case of an emergency, or even a routine medical visit, the healthcare professional places the drive in the USB port of any compatible computer. With a personal health record, your health information is available where you and your health care provider need it.
There are currently 25 companies selling Personal Health Record solutions. Although all 25 companies claim password protection for the user interface, only one of the systems uses encryption to protect data files from direct access by other software. Encryption is an essential feature for a personal health record.
Also needed is the ability to ensure that records are not deliberately or accidentally altered by the patient, especially if the record includes notes from medical professionals as several of the systems do. Another nice feature would be the ability to sync with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at the doctor’s office. With this kind of synchronization capability, a central repository serves not only as a primary data source, but also as an ideal backup for USB data.
When choosing a Personal Health Record look for:
* An emergency information screen that appears immediately when the PHR is activated
* Password protection with encryption for information stored in the PHR
* Import and storage of images for x-rays, electrocardiograms and personal documents
* Storage for multiple emergency contacts (including local contacts and employers)
* Storage of all your insurance information (medical, dental, travel, auto, commercial, liability, workers’ compensation, etc.)
* Lists of both your primary physicians and your specialists
* Lists of current and past medications
* Lists of Allergies and Reactions
* Lists of Hospitalizations, Surgeries, Past and Current Medical Conditions
* Diaries where doctors, nurses and you can record notes for future reference
* Synchronization with your main computer and an online data repository
* Synchronization with Electronic Medical Records in the doctor’s office or hospital
* Track changes made to maintain data integrity
* USB drive capacity of 1 Gigabyte or more
In the next seven years, all of health care, by necessity and regulation, will convert its centuries-old paper technology to modern electronic medical records. The use of portable health records for data validation is the next logical step in this evolution.
What a wonderful fusion of form and function that could now save your life!