Paper Review: Purple Group
The interest in interoperability and its features are explained in detail, and one can understand that interoperability has many potential benefits for the healthcare industry. However, there exists a lack of information about standardization – an essential requirement not only for separate programs but for the sphere of medical care as a whole. For example, one can mention the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and its impact on the growth and expansion of providers’ concern for cooperation (Yaraghi, 2015). While it is clear that many findings about interoperability are presented in the form of recommendations, the effect of this act is not merely theoretical but also practical in opening a conversation between health care informatics businesses.
The benefits and risks of interoperability are discussed as well, noting how high levels of program’s data exchange can affect different stakeholders in healthcare. Indeed, medical workers and pharmacists’ performance can increase in quality with high interoperability. Moreover, the businesses’ opportunity to work together and use the information of others is clearly explained. Nonetheless, it is unclear how collaboration can interest vendors who are mostly focused on competition and market share. It may be useful to pinpoint exact financial opportunities for increasing interoperability.
The future of innovations should also be considered for healthcare providers – currently, some hospitals may still believe that such systems as EHR (Electronic Health Record) are not as useful to them as paper-based records or a personalized database (Yaraghi, 2015). Finally, interoperability should be assessed as a risk for patients’ health. With a lack of attention to proper data standardization, health care providers may find themselves losing a certain level of connection with patients, being limited by a complex and binding electronic system.
Paper Review: Yellow Group
In the paper, it is noted that the current provision of healthcare results in the accumulation of a large amount of information in the form of patient records, billing, and systems’ management. Truly, the implementation of interoperability can help providers to eliminate excessive data and create a network from which all stakeholders can benefit. The standards proposed for achieving interoperability are presented and defined, although their exact suggestions can be considered in more detail.
For example, HITECH and other government initiatives are focused on data exchange promotion, but their arguments for increased interoperability are not discussed. One can mention the possibility to drive the economy forward with the implementation of standardized systems – not just concerning spendings but also new ways of treating accessible patient data (Yaraghi, 2015). The dangers and benefits of unified systems are considered, but it is unclear which are more impactful for patients’ health.
The chosen marketing approach is focused on the collaboration of healthcare professionals and program developers. Furthermore, such aspects as data security and collaboration are considered. The risks of the current heterogeneous systems in the industry can be reviewed as well. Heterogeneous systems can lead to various adverse outcomes for patients, hospitals, and software developers as well (Masethe, Adewumi, & Masethe, 2016).
Program developers’ contribution to the growth of interoperability can be presented to show that the lack of interoperability is dangerous to their business as well as the healthcare industry. This view of opposite outcomes of collaboration-related stagnation and innovation can become another vital strategy in marketing interoperability. Overall, the suggestions brought up in the paper are multifaceted and interesting; their utilization can help the industry of health care informatics move forward.
Challenges and Benefits of EMR Implementation
An electronic medical record (EMR) is a system that stores data about all admitted patient, including their demographic information, medical history, assessments, diagnostics, and prescriptions. In urban and rural areas, many hospitals have implemented EMRs into their practice, and the use of electronic platforms continues to increase (Adler-Milstein et al., 2015). In fact, the initiatives of rural providers sometimes outperform those in cities (Whitacre, 2015).
EMRs allow hospitals to collect and store patient data in a single system, where information is standardized and easily accessible. If patients return to the clinic, their medical records from previous appointments can be found with a click of a button, which makes the patient processing time-efficient. This is beneficial for rural hospitals that face the issues of understaffing, patient overload, or unorganized paper-based records.
Nevertheless, the installation of an EMR still has many potential risks and obstacles. It is vital to note that rural hospitals often have different financial opportunities, and their budget is less focused on innovative practices such as an EMR. Therefore, they may contribute less to high-quality software and hardware as well as employee education and IT specialists’ efforts. As an outcome, a rural hospital can install an unsafe or ineffective program that will slow down the process. This can also contribute to another problem – nurses and physicians’ cooperation (Adler-Milstein et al., 2015).
If employees do not have an opportunity to understand the benefits of an EMR, they may not use it in their daily practice or resist learning initiatives. However, the feasibility of installing such a system for a single rural provider remains adequate. It is confirmed by the statistics of installation and the fact that the positive effects of EMR can outweigh its drawbacks for patients, clinicians, and hospitals.
References
Adler-Milstein, J., DesRoches, C. M., Kralovec, P., Foster, G., Worzala, C., Charles, D.,… Jha, A. K. (2015). Electronic health record adoption in US hospitals: Progress continues, but challenges persist. Health Affairs, 34(12), 2174-2180.
Masethe, H. D., Adewumi, A. O., & Masethe, M. A. (2016). The scoping review of integration of heterogeneous healthcare systems. In Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists (pp. 1-5). Hong Kong, Hong Kong: International Association of Engineers.
Whitacre, B. E. (2015). Rural EMR adoption rates overtake those in urban areas. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 22(2), 399-408.
Yaraghi, N. (2015). A sustainable business model for health information exchange platforms: The solution to interoperability in healthcare IT. The Brookings Institution: Center for Technology and Innovation, January, 1-15.