The Form, Function of Future Medical Records - Term Paper Example

? The Form, Function of Future Medical Records Record keeping is an important aspect of everyday life. It is important to keep records, mostly for future use. It may be of our life’s experiences, places visited, significant occurrences in our lives like the birth of a child, or marriage among others. Record keeping is of major importance in companies. An officer of may need to refresh their memory on their past records on sales to determine their progress as a corporation. Record keeping is very important to health providers. It is easier to attend to a patient whose records are readily available as you are able to know their specific medical conditions for example allergies. However, with passage of time, record keeping in the medical sector needs to revolutionize. The aim of this article is to predict the form and function of medical records by the year 2030, the obstacles to access of medical records and recommendations on how to overcome such obstacles. Information, communication, and technology are core to ensuring a better healthcare system by 2030. Technology is constantly changing to cater for the ever changing human needs, and healthcare is a major human need as everybody, the world over is entitled to healthcare services (Roxanne C. Dryden-Edwards, 2010). The Life Enhancement Workshop held in 2009 found out that at the heart of healthcare is ICT. The workshop discussed personalized medicine, cyber human, and combating ageing. The future health care system will be qualitative and personalized (Roxanne C. Dryden-Edwards, 2010). This factor ensures an effective and personalized access to medical help. It factors in the human genetic makeup’s that tailor therapies, treatment, and diagnosis. Personalized medication will be curative and preventive. Through this, doctors have access to patient’s health records and history making them able to diagnose various diseases. Record keeping is also core to the healthcare system. It provides a patient’s data history in the system. This information will be readily available, and it will be a requirement that all health practitioners have this system. When a patient falls sick he/she can go to any clinic without having to go to the hospital since the system allows for the same medical data and is accessible at any medical institution. A proper records system and access to better health care in future will depend heavily on the web. For this to be everybody should have access to the internet and the governments should educate everybody on the importance of the internet and ways of accessing healthcare online. Informed patients will consult doctors from anywhere in the world through the web. The future health records will contain genetic and clinical data as well as personal individual information such as diet, exercise, and daily activities. Through organ models, physiology and overall patient anatomy, virtual patient bodies will be created. Through the virtual patient bodies, doctors will be able to have virtual patients when the real patients are not around to attend the medical examination physically. A strategic information system plan has to be available for the future healthcare system. This system will be universal and every government will make it a requirement for all medical practitioners to go through training on using it and possessing the rights to have the system (King, 2009). This system will have all countries registered such that if a patient is in a different country the doctor will have to seek permission from the patients country of origin to access his/her medical data. The system also provides for appropriate medication for any type of disease diagnosed. The system will also comprise all registered doctors and their background. Patient history will also be in the system. From the system, the doctor will also be able to know how the patient pays for medication and will promptly charge the person responsible for the payment. Upon birth, babies’ registration in the system takes place and their medical history updated, as they grow older. This system will have everybody’s information. Once the system is in place, all governments are required to start gathering citizens’ information. This information will be primarily health history, daily activities and diets and any other information that pertains to a person’s health (King, 2009). Doctors should undergo training on using the system since they are the ones to use them and update on patients history. Since the web will be core to the functioning of this system, all governments will have to make internet available to everyone to ease accessibility of the program. Further, all citizens will be educated on how to use the system. The patients will have limited access to use the system. The patient's profile is limited to only seeing their medical history, making appointments and getting information on the different doctors available. The doctors’ profiles will be strong, they will be able to access all information in the system and even make some modifications on patient information but with permission from the health body that is responsible for the system and the country’s health sector. The system will have challenges of implementing it. Once the system is in place, internet access will be a major hurdle especially in Africa, Asia, and South America. The other challenge will be user education. Educating the doctors will not be a major hurdle but will have some constraints because of language barrier. Patient education will also face a major hurdle not only because of the language barrier but also because of the literacy level. The other challenge is system compliance (King, 2009). Once educated, it will be important for the users to comply with the rules and requirements of the program. Conclusion From the above, it is evident that information, communication, and technology are important to the future healthcare system. The system should be invested in and the population should be well informed about the upcoming system so that they be expecting and be preparing to embrace a new system of healthcare. This is important because whenever there is something new there is always some resistance to it. We as the current population need this system because it is improved and better. Transport and distance between doctor and patient will not be an issue any more and as patients, we will be able to access our own personal medical records from the system. It is therefore important for us to embrace, so that we can get better and improved healthcare. References King, W. R. (2009). Planning for Information System. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Roxanne C. Dryden-Edwards, L. C.-G. 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