Significance of Maintaining Personal Health Record Electronically
Health is Wealth! and is true to every word of it. Taking care of it in every possible way is of paramount importance if we want to make sure we get blessed with a diseases free long lasting life. The first step towards this noble attempt is to maintain every possible and available minute details pertaining to one’s health in an efficient and organized manner which can be consulted by the person as and when he or she requires. Personal Health Record is a systematic saving of important matters related to the health of the person availing this facility in an electronic form. The main purpose of keeping such record is to provide accurate and complete summary of all possible medical condition and health related issues of a patient which can be avail of online. The data available on Personal Health Record can comprise several significant matters like patient reported outcome data, lab results and earlier medical history that can provide valuable information and aids in proper diagnosis and or treatment of the person in question and such medical reports which can be quite helpful in planning on to proceed with future treatments. It also can consists of several important medical information about a patient like his or her cases of allergies, chronic diseases, vaccinations, laboratory test reports, prescriptions and medications prescribed by previous doctors, cases of any medical emergencies which required admitting to hospitals, family medical history, surgeries if any, Observation Of Daily Living or ODL, readings of BP or other such like Sugar etc all can be stored effectively in Personal Health Record. Electronic Medical Record provides digital version of a paper chart containing everything from a patient’s medical history from one practice. Systematic documentation of several important documents in relation to medical conditions or health issues of various patients get efficiently stored in files using internet facility on computer in almost all medical establishments these days and this get done by Electronic Medical Records. As the very name signifies, this technology helps in saving and storing medical records of individuals in their electronic form in an organized way that can be get access to whenever required. It helps in witnessing sophistication and systemization in the working environment of any medical establishment that seeks its service by installing this advanced medical software. It has advantages over paper records in the following manners. It tracks data over time • Can easily recognize the patients who are due for their preventive visits and screenings. • Can monitor how patients measure up to certain parameters like blood pressure reading and vaccination. • Improve overall health care in practice by bringing in proper organizational factors and modernity in such fields. Personal Health Record and Electronic Medical Record should not be confused and intermixed as information contained in EMR is not shared by providers outside the practice but it is not the case with HER.