Comments on: Are electronic medical records a good idea?

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:53:48 +0000

Sal,

If you are concerned with people hacking into the system, then I understand your concern. However, when you are dealing with a very large system, like government-run systems, then they don't play around. They completely control the Internet and security is so uptight that it's almost impossible to hack into.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:52:03 +0000

It's more efficient that way.

By: Doogie

Doogie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:39:16 +0000

What about the security of online banking?

I understand your point, Sal. I just believe that the potential utilization of electronic medical records has pros that outweigh its cons. I do firmly believe that its establishment will improve the quality of healthcare.

Memoral Sloan-Kettering utilizes such an online, electronic medical system, and so far, the results have been positive.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:01:12 +0000

I believe the reason for electronic records is to share the information easily with other medical facilities and that would therefore include online records. I personally would not like to have my records so easily transported to other agencies and possibly controlled by the federal government!

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:58:46 +0000

Great answer!

By: Sal

Sal — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:12:07 +0000

I see that, but what about the security of the online records?

That is where it goes south for me.

By: Doogie

Doogie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:17:21 +0000

Electronic medical records are actually a much more efficient way of documenting patient history. As papadawg said, they would allow for ease of exchange amongst doctors and actually eliminate some of the confusion that results from reading the less-than-perfect handwriting or documentation of other physicians.

By: papadawg

papadawg — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:35:15 +0000

Having your medical records on file electronically does not necessarily mean that they can be transmitted via the internet. Ever hear of flash drives? A flash drive can hold up to four or more gigabytes of information – and that is more information than you could ever acumilate over your lifetime in a medical sense. Plus copies could be made much more economically and much easier than making a hard copy of all your files so if you wanted to change doctors it would be much simpler.

Just my not-so-humble opinion.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:59:33 +0000

Almost happened to me once. If it's on a computer, it can be transmitted to a server and stuff. Also, with the Internet, it is a lot easier for radiologists to transfer the images and stuff like that.

By: Sal

Sal — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:38:22 +0000

Screw the internet, I want hard copies.