Medical Software

Management of medical records has been a subject of dispute for many years. Current technology has made great advances in the field of medical EMR software, but this has not been met with one hundred per cent acclaim by medical professionals.

Doctors who have been trained in conventional medical records management are leery of any computerization, particularly when it comes to medical EMR software. The fear seems to be that the digital records will not be as secure as a paper chart; electronic medical records are seen as easy to lose and easy to hack into.

These fears are not without merit; however, since the beginning of medical EMR software development, the industry has worked to build safeguards into all software. With the passage in 1996 of HIPAA, the need for the strict security of patient medical records has become even more acute.

All medical EMR software is now required to be HIPAA compliant and has codes built into the software that prevent any intrusion by a hacker. In addition, the software that a medical system or office uses has built in safeguards that prevent any medical information from being exported from the system without express written permission by the patient.

The modern school of thought about medical EMR software is fairly straightforward: bring it on! My dentist is a case study in this - his entire practice is on the computer, including dental X-rays and billing. As a patient, I appreciate the ease with which he can pull my records up on the screen, while I am sitting in the chair, and show me exactly what needs to be done on my treatment plan.

Doctors who are coming into practice in today's medical community will have to grapple with fear versus reality. Fear says that medical records cannot possibly be safe in an electronic format such as medical EMR software; reality says, the business community is going paperless - get on the bandwagon, already!

What can the medical professional do, then, to ensure the safety and security of patient records? Start with a qualified information technology professional who is fully conversant with HIPAA compliance and skilled in the use of codes to protect patient records.

Medical EMR software can be a great tool in a medical practice if used properly, with adequate safeguards in place. The bottom line is that, regardless of personal or professional misgivings, the medical information management systems of yesterday are going away - and it is better to replace them with a secure IT system before a problem manifests.