EMRs in Healthcare: Bringing Doctors Up to speed

by Dr. Ronald Ikpe (Dr.Ron)

Technology has pervaded every aspect of our lives, and healthcare is not excluded. The application of technology to healthcare has completely revolutionized healthcare ultimately redefining the way we deliver and also receive healthcare. We can appreciate the use of technology in various aspects of healthcare both for providers and receivers of healthcare.

Examples include the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in image recognition and analysis which is a great support to radiology, precision medicine which is focused on personalized medicine based on an individual’s genetic makeup, use of telemedicine to improve access to healthcare, use of healthcare data to predict future trends, the advent of wearables to support remote monitoring /collection of healthcare data, and the utilization of electronic medical records to store, manage, and analyse patient data amongst other use cases.

Medical record keeping is the foundation of patient care as it ensures continuity of care after every encounter. It has always been done traditionally using paper or better called, paper based medical records (PBHR) but PBHR is prone to several problems including the possibility of being destroyed by fire, flooding or even rodent attacks. In this age of technology supported healthcare, paper-based records do not give real time access to patient data, and do not offer the integrations associated with electronic medical record systems (EMRs).

EMRs started as problem oriented medical records and has undergone several changes to become the robust systems that we have today. The benefits of EMRs are numerous and some of them include providing up to date patient medical information especially at the point of care, permits rapid access to patient health information, supporting better care coordination among healthcare teams, eliminating the problem of poor handwriting amongst healthcare professionals, encouraging better clinical documentation, safer prescription, and cost reduction for businesses through ways like minimizing the use of paper in the hospital. Despite these advantages, it has always been a hurdle to get doctors to accept EMRs whole heartedly.

doctors up to speed especially about EMRs in healthcare, and technology in healthcare broadly but I will focus on EMRs.

Firstly, there is a need to restructure the medical school training curriculum as the current modules do not exposure future doctors to what is currently happening as it relates to technology in healthcare and digital health. Early exposure would improve understanding of technology by doctors, and ultimately improve adoption and use of EMRs. Courses like design thinking in healthcare, user experience in healthcare, basic computer/IT skills, and healthcare innovation should be taught in medical school. Outside the medical school, CME topics related around healthcare technologies should be done regularly alongside core clinical focused topics in addition to free webinars for doctors. Doctors need to be involved in the design and implementation of EMRs as studies have shown that the input of doctors are not largely sought in these two critical processes which ultimately affects adoption and use. Medical associations can subsidize certificate courses for members to support them in becoming more tech savvy.

EMR vendors need to offer customized training to doctors that use EMRs largely because needs are varied, and level of computer/ digital literacy varies among healthcare professionals. It is not enough to sell and deploy electronic medical record systems, it is important to follow up with trainings pre and post implantation to ensure that the learning curve is not very steep for them. Another way is to also produce simple how to videos on various aspects of the EMR that doctors can watch on demand or in their free time. We cannot keep on living in the past or else the world will leave us behind because technology is moving at an astronomical pace. Healthcare workers including doctors need to be brought up to speed about electronic medical record systems, why they are important, and what the future possibilities are with EMRs. The landscape of medicine has evolved, and we have to adapt, and quickly too.

Hopefully, if well implemented, we might have more doctors embracing electronic medical record systems in hospitals.