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Medical imaging was the first taste of digital health technology for physicians and most health care providers. The technology provides prompt high-quality information which improves efficiency and is mobile. Then came electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs were mandated as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The goals of EHRs are to improve patient safety, decrease costs, and allow for the seamless exchange of information among providers and providing entities. As a proponent of digital health technologies, I submit that they are patient advocacy tools. The debate over the "effectiveness"of EHRs continues. It is too early to evaluate the true impact of EHRs on patient care at this juncture. Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs pertains solely to data capture. It is with Stages 2 and 3 that patient engagement and clinical decision support tools are incorporated in processes around the EHR. These stages have not been fully implemented and won’t be for a few years to come. Therefore those attributes of MU potentially having the most impact on patients are not in use today. What we do know is that: A) Physicians are spending more time looking at computer screens than into the faces of the people they are treating. B) That much of the data entered is to satisfy regulations of the HITECH Act and not directly related to patient care. C) That EHRs were designed for billing and regulatory purposes and do not in any way reflect clinical work flow. D) EHRs do not integrate well with medical devices or disparate digital health technology systems. However some excellent progress has been made in developing true interoperability among systems.
The EHR does not represent the face of digital technology in health care. Mobile health technologies, wearable sensor technologies, aging at home technologies, and ingestible medication sensor technology populate today’s digital health landscape. These are developments which will contribute directly to more efficient and improved patient care. They will address gaps in care. Having a mother who is ill and requiring significant help at home has taken me on a journey riddled with frustration and pain that is also experienced by my patients and their caregivers daily. It has made me a better physician, who realizes that the most important aspect of care is empathy. Most people view technology as a something that creates a divide between provider and patient. Effective technology can actually bring them closer. It can deliver trending data (which must be accurate, filtered, and actionable in order to be useful), drastically altering care recommendations and preventing hospitalizations and medical emergencies. While there remains much to be proven with regards to digital technologies, I expect them to become a backbone of the health care landscape.
Another digital health technology sector making its way into advanced health care enterprises is analytics. These tools take health care "big data" and make it relevant to treating individual patients as well as populations. Use cases for health care analytics demonstrate that EHRs, while being innately clumsy can be transformed into powerful sources of useful information.
Patients as consumers are demanding mobile tools long utilized in the retail and finance sectors . Examples can be seen in patient-physician video conferencing, mobile appointment schedulers, and even a smartphone ECG rhythm monitor. Digital health also involves social media. Patients are now finding themselves in online patient support groups. There are significant advantages of online versus real life support groups. On the provider side, digital tools such as Doximity and Epocratesare widely used.
In summary, the digital health landscape is much broader and friendlier than the EHR of today. I look forward to EHRs becoming more user friendly and clinically rewarding.
Dr. Scher is an electrophysiologist with the Heart Group of Lancaster (Pa.) General Health. He is also director of DLS Healthcare Consulting, Harrisburg, Pa., and clinical associate professor of medicine at the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey.
Medical imaging was the first taste of digital health technology for physicians and most health care providers. The technology provides prompt high-quality information which improves efficiency and is mobile. Then came electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs were mandated as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The goals of EHRs are to improve patient safety, decrease costs, and allow for the seamless exchange of information among providers and providing entities. As a proponent of digital health technologies, I submit that they are patient advocacy tools. The debate over the "effectiveness"of EHRs continues. It is too early to evaluate the true impact of EHRs on patient care at this juncture. Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs pertains solely to data capture. It is with Stages 2 and 3 that patient engagement and clinical decision support tools are incorporated in processes around the EHR. These stages have not been fully implemented and won’t be for a few years to come. Therefore those attributes of MU potentially having the most impact on patients are not in use today. What we do know is that: A) Physicians are spending more time looking at computer screens than into the faces of the people they are treating. B) That much of the data entered is to satisfy regulations of the HITECH Act and not directly related to patient care. C) That EHRs were designed for billing and regulatory purposes and do not in any way reflect clinical work flow. D) EHRs do not integrate well with medical devices or disparate digital health technology systems. However some excellent progress has been made in developing true interoperability among systems.
The EHR does not represent the face of digital technology in health care. Mobile health technologies, wearable sensor technologies, aging at home technologies, and ingestible medication sensor technology populate today’s digital health landscape. These are developments which will contribute directly to more efficient and improved patient care. They will address gaps in care. Having a mother who is ill and requiring significant help at home has taken me on a journey riddled with frustration and pain that is also experienced by my patients and their caregivers daily. It has made me a better physician, who realizes that the most important aspect of care is empathy. Most people view technology as a something that creates a divide between provider and patient. Effective technology can actually bring them closer. It can deliver trending data (which must be accurate, filtered, and actionable in order to be useful), drastically altering care recommendations and preventing hospitalizations and medical emergencies. While there remains much to be proven with regards to digital technologies, I expect them to become a backbone of the health care landscape.
Another digital health technology sector making its way into advanced health care enterprises is analytics. These tools take health care "big data" and make it relevant to treating individual patients as well as populations. Use cases for health care analytics demonstrate that EHRs, while being innately clumsy can be transformed into powerful sources of useful information.
Patients as consumers are demanding mobile tools long utilized in the retail and finance sectors . Examples can be seen in patient-physician video conferencing, mobile appointment schedulers, and even a smartphone ECG rhythm monitor. Digital health also involves social media. Patients are now finding themselves in online patient support groups. There are significant advantages of online versus real life support groups. On the provider side, digital tools such as Doximity and Epocratesare widely used.
In summary, the digital health landscape is much broader and friendlier than the EHR of today. I look forward to EHRs becoming more user friendly and clinically rewarding.
Dr. Scher is an electrophysiologist with the Heart Group of Lancaster (Pa.) General Health. He is also director of DLS Healthcare Consulting, Harrisburg, Pa., and clinical associate professor of medicine at the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey.
Medical imaging was the first taste of digital health technology for physicians and most health care providers. The technology provides prompt high-quality information which improves efficiency and is mobile. Then came electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs were mandated as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The goals of EHRs are to improve patient safety, decrease costs, and allow for the seamless exchange of information among providers and providing entities. As a proponent of digital health technologies, I submit that they are patient advocacy tools. The debate over the "effectiveness"of EHRs continues. It is too early to evaluate the true impact of EHRs on patient care at this juncture. Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs pertains solely to data capture. It is with Stages 2 and 3 that patient engagement and clinical decision support tools are incorporated in processes around the EHR. These stages have not been fully implemented and won’t be for a few years to come. Therefore those attributes of MU potentially having the most impact on patients are not in use today. What we do know is that: A) Physicians are spending more time looking at computer screens than into the faces of the people they are treating. B) That much of the data entered is to satisfy regulations of the HITECH Act and not directly related to patient care. C) That EHRs were designed for billing and regulatory purposes and do not in any way reflect clinical work flow. D) EHRs do not integrate well with medical devices or disparate digital health technology systems. However some excellent progress has been made in developing true interoperability among systems.
The EHR does not represent the face of digital technology in health care. Mobile health technologies, wearable sensor technologies, aging at home technologies, and ingestible medication sensor technology populate today’s digital health landscape. These are developments which will contribute directly to more efficient and improved patient care. They will address gaps in care. Having a mother who is ill and requiring significant help at home has taken me on a journey riddled with frustration and pain that is also experienced by my patients and their caregivers daily. It has made me a better physician, who realizes that the most important aspect of care is empathy. Most people view technology as a something that creates a divide between provider and patient. Effective technology can actually bring them closer. It can deliver trending data (which must be accurate, filtered, and actionable in order to be useful), drastically altering care recommendations and preventing hospitalizations and medical emergencies. While there remains much to be proven with regards to digital technologies, I expect them to become a backbone of the health care landscape.
Another digital health technology sector making its way into advanced health care enterprises is analytics. These tools take health care "big data" and make it relevant to treating individual patients as well as populations. Use cases for health care analytics demonstrate that EHRs, while being innately clumsy can be transformed into powerful sources of useful information.
Patients as consumers are demanding mobile tools long utilized in the retail and finance sectors . Examples can be seen in patient-physician video conferencing, mobile appointment schedulers, and even a smartphone ECG rhythm monitor. Digital health also involves social media. Patients are now finding themselves in online patient support groups. There are significant advantages of online versus real life support groups. On the provider side, digital tools such as Doximity and Epocratesare widely used.
In summary, the digital health landscape is much broader and friendlier than the EHR of today. I look forward to EHRs becoming more user friendly and clinically rewarding.
Dr. Scher is an electrophysiologist with the Heart Group of Lancaster (Pa.) General Health. He is also director of DLS Healthcare Consulting, Harrisburg, Pa., and clinical associate professor of medicine at the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey.
