Examining Google Electronic Medical Records Information Technology Essay

A1) Google electronic medical records are a concept based on how the patients can store their medical records electronically (Plunkett, 2008). All over the world, there are many patients who visit to hospitals when they are ill. It is necessary for them to maintain their medical records. So, if we count each patients visit to the hospital for a year, it would be a big number. In such case, is difficult for the patient to maintain all medical records. So, Google has come up with a new task with all new features that help the patients to maintain their medical records. Google has given a name to this task as Google Health. This Google Health means current medical record storage system. Google’s medical record system provides a feature where the patients can enter their medical records. These medical records are stored in a very secure place known as repository. The repository is provided with the best security, where it can be accessed only by the health care providers. Doctors are invited to give their advices and send relevant information to the medical records entered by the patients. This system is developed with many features. The features include health profiles for medication, reminder messages for prescription refills, reminder messages for the doctor visits, directories for doctors. The features also include the services for patients to enter their medical records, get advices from the doctors and personal health advices. The main purpose for developing this medical system is to make patients records easily accessible, more complete to streamline recordkeeping (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008).

2. What are the problems with America’s current medical recordkeeping system? How would electronic medical records alleviate these problems?

A2) American current medical recordkeeping system has following problems –

It is difficult to maintain paper based medical record by patients, as they frequently visit to the hospital. The current record system is difficult to access. The process of accessing the records is time consuming for both patients and doctors. In certain medical emergencies, time is the most critical factor. In such situations, access to the records becomes difficult. There are security issues related to storage and retrieval of the medical records. As the medical records are highly confidential, any theft or unauthorized access to it can create ethical and legal issues. The medical records entered by the patients should be provided with the appropriate security or else the information can be tracked by the internet thefts. So, it is always important to provide security to the data or the medical record of the patients being stored online. Other problem, with the current system is that the medical records are not accessed from multiple locations. If the patient needs to get transferred to a hospital across cities, then he needs to carry his medical records. The solution to this problem, as explained in next paragraph, is to switch to electronic.

Following features of Electronic medical records will alleviate these problems –

Google has developed a system called Google Health, which is designed with a purpose of storing the medical records. The main purpose for developing this system is to make patients medical records easily accessible. The system is developed with the best features that enable the patients to easily enter their medical records. This system is developed to benefit patients in storing their medical records. Google is one of the best companies with a dedicated mission to bring up online innovations. The mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This means, the information that is being collected from all over the world should be made accessible and useful. The best way is to switch to electronic health records, which means storing all patients medical records electronically (Carter, 2008). This conversion to electronic health records stands to provide much needed organization and efficiency to the healthcare industry, which is the single largest segment of America’s Gross Domestic Product. After the discussions between the individuals and the privacy advocates, they made this electronic medical health records to be stored in such a way that decreases the likelihood of privacy invasion (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008).

3. What management, organization, and technology factors are most critical to the creation and development of electronic medical records?

A3) Developing the electronic medical records is not necessary but the most important thing is to maintain the medical records. The health care system is developed with the best features where in patients can enter his or hers medical information (Willis, 2008).

There are some factors to which the management is responsible. The management is purely responsible for maintaining each medical record entered by each patient. The management looks after the security provided for the information. The managements work is to look how the records are being handled by the servers. Also, the privacy along with the security, the electronic records stored online is referred by many users in many different fields according to their requirement. Apart from this, the management must also manage their employee’s payments. The employee’s are the people who work to accomplish company’s tasks.

There are some factors to which the organization is responsible. The medical records entered by patients are stored in the databases which are managed by different organizations. These organizations must organise the databases in such a way that the medical records should be stored safely and permanently. These medical records are used by the patients for future retrievals. The organization is also responsible for updating the medical records of the patients and makes them accessible to the users without any trouble. They should also be able to manage, the operations performed by the users.

Also, there are some more factors in which the technology can play a major role. The technology that is used and implemented should enhance security of the medical records rather than making the patients worried about their information. The technology that is used should be able to store the data or information to the database without missing any data and also retrieve the required data where and when required (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008).

4. What are the pros and cons of electronic patient records? Do you think the concerns over digitizing our medical records are valid? Why or why not?

A4). Following are the few pros to the electronic patient records:

It is easier to create, store and retrieve the information. As all records are stored in single database managed by a single service provider, the expertise can develop at the providers end. The information on electronic patient records can be accessed from anywhere across the world. When storing the medical records of the patients online, concerned databases allow some users to view the records and find solution to their medical problems. Even the doctors can view the advices given by other specialist doctors and can learn more about the medication. As all the medical records are stored electronically, the users can make changes to their records and retrieve the required records from any system just by making use of the internet.

Following are the few Cons to the electronic patient records:

The primary issue with electronic medical records is the data theft or ensuring that the security of the records is not compromised. The medical record can be either paper based or maintained electronically. In both the cases, the medical records need security. The security to printed records is a traditional and proven process while the security process for the electronic records has not been established so far. The security is provided to the medical records stored electronically by using some best technologies. At some point, these technologies provide limited security to the medical records. There have been many cases in the recent past when the personal data of the user was compromised with. As there is only one single service provider of online medical records, it can also mean a single point of failure. If such a system has to be established, it needs to be done with multiple players.

Are concerns over digitizing medical records valid? Why or why not?

Digitizing means storing or safeguarding the medical records online electronically by using some types of electronic gadgets. The concept of digitizing is to make the medical records accessible anywhere from the world any time. This concept is beneficial for the users as they can view their records where and when necessary. Sometimes, it may not be good to use this concept, if the security for the medical records is not good as this may lead to the track the medical records of many patients (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008). If any kind of emergency medical problem arises during the access to the medical records then it can become a critical issue as it means that someone’s life is at stake (Baren, 2007).

5. Should people entrust Google with their electronic medical records? Why or why not?

A5) Google has developed amazing task where it organises all the medical information of the people and make them available to the users when it is necessary. The Google has named the task as Google Healthcare. By the name itself anyone can guess what the concept is all about. We can entrust Google with their electronic medical records as it benefits the users or the patients in many different ways. With this system the patients can enter their medical records, make changes to the records, and retrieve the medical records when necessary. The patients can retrieve and access the medical record from anywhere in the world. This is because of digitizing. Digitizing means the medical records that are entered by the patients are stored electronically. The medical records stored in this way need a very high security as they are chances for the medical records to be viewed by any other users. So, for this sake it is always necessary to provide high and best security for the medical records being stored electronically. Google has provided this security facility. Sometimes we may not entrust on Google with its electronic medical records. This is because the security reason. As the medical records entered online are stored in databases these require high security. These databases are managed by different organizations. The databases used should be enough reliable to store the entered medical records, make changes to the medical records and retrieve the medical records when required by the patients. If the database is unable to update the medical records entered by the patients, it may cause a problem when the patient tries to retrieve that medical record (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008). The concept of digitizing medical records are valid only when the security provided for the medical records is at the highest range when compared to other security features and must be checked by the organizations at times (Tanner, 2007).

6. If you were in charge of designing an electronic medical recordkeeping system, what are some features you would include? What are features you would avoid?

A6) Concept of maintain medical records is useful to the users. It is a concept developed by the one of the greatest and biggest companies Google. This concept of Google is mainly about helping users in storing their medical records safely and provides access to their medical records when required by them. It provides the users to enter their medical records which can be accessed by the doctors and give relevant advices to the patients. There are some problems with this concept that were faced by the users. So, as a solution to these problems was to switch to electronic. This means that all the records are maintained electronically where each user is provided with unique username and passwords. If, I am required to design an electronic medical record keeping system, I would include all the required necessary features that will benefit the users of this system. I would also like used technologies which provide the best and high security for the medical records entered by the patients (Grady, 2007). I would provide different features like providing access to the medical records for the patients, organise each health department separately. I would maintain each patient’s records separately in a well organised manner, provide access to the information when required by different departments. Provide with best database that can store, change and retrieve the medical records entered by the patients. Organise all diseases and allergies according to the type which helps the patients to find the required information for which they are looking for. Provide with a search text for finding the exact solution, provide with lists of doctors of different department their timings of availability. And also provide a text box named as queries where the patients can query and seek for the advices, immediate response and advices to the patients. The things which I would like to avoid are less access speed which consumes patient’s time, bad or very poor security. Also, would avoid access to medical records by unauthorised users, would avoid databases which are not reliable. Also, avoid limited access to the medical records, would avoid late responses to the queries or advices put by the patients (Laudon, Laudon, & C., 2008).