The current administration has set a goal of having the federal government to invest in electronic health records so that all medical records are digitized within 5 years. This marks the same timeframe goal that was set by the previous Bush administration to digitize health records by 2014. This is a hugely ambitious undertaking considering that there is currently no standard for health records nor is the technology tested and ready for this massive of a project.
This will be a real test of the "cloud computing" that we are hearing so much about. The data will all be stored so that it can be accessed by health care professionals across the country in short order.
The anticipated benefit will be reduced costs and fewer mistakes because of comprehensive accurate records, however, this is certainly not guaranteed. As I have discussed before in my garbage in garbage out blog, the data would be suspect and no physician would trust it and risk his malpractice on it. Additionally they think it would reduce duplicate testing and other lab work, however, like I said, how the data is maintained is the key to the reliability of the data.
It is a lofty goal, and someday the data will be accessible electronically in some format, but until the mechanics are worked out, there is no way to get the data gathered. If transcription is required from hand written notes to the electronic format then there will be transcription errors. Scanning will be a huge undertaking and there are too many open issues yet to proceed.
As the government considers national health care, then some of these records will be standardized and this system could start. I think it would be wiser to just start keeping electronic records and let time make the database more and more complete vice trying to import generations of medical history and knowledge. We should look to the UK and watch them try to implement a simliar multibillion dollar system which has produced mixed results. Mixed results are not what the health profession needs to improve health care in this country.
One thing that really could be of benefit to the millions of health records is that the data could be mined for a treasure trove of data which could be then used in tracking and treatment of illnesses. This data is not centralized now and only the CDC gets scattered reports to try and identify trends and other health related issues that could be picked up earlier and thus have a better cure rate.
InformationWeek KC Jones January 12, 2009
It seems like five years will not be enough for this project. In my opinion, we should start keep digital record going forward like Darrel and worry the past records later. I know that many financial institutions are trying to convert their data into digital form also and they are encounter similar problems. We should let the financial industry work it out before we take risk with our health care system.
ReplyDeleteI agree, there is still no real easy way to convert paper data to digital. I'm sure. Most financial data will become obsolete faster than health data, but it's still a mess, but in their case there is a more standardized approach at how data is displayed because of those wild and crazy accountants.
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