Can Electronic Medical Records Make Health Care Better?

From portability to AI-enhanced treatment, computerization in medicine offers great promise. And some complexity, too.

By Alain StephensOctober 5, 2017 11:53 am,

If you went to a doctor’s office more than 10 years ago, the nurse or doctor might have greeted you, carrying a file folder under, brimming with papers representing a lifetime of medical history. In the last decade or so those paper folders have been replaced by an array of electronic documents – a move to improve medical care. But how do paperless records affect the future of medicine?

Digital savant Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman’s 512 Tech says switching from paper to electronic files has created many interoperability issues including the learning curve required to train medical staff on new software. Although this transition is painful, Gallaga says electronic records are predicted to begin improving medical standards.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

–Why the medical industry is currently in a period of uncertainty

–How electronic records technology is resulting in less interaction between doctors and patients

–Why switching away from paper is so cost -prohibitive

 

Written by Dani Matias.