Electronic patient records (EPR) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Electronic patient records (EPR) - Essay Example It presents novel techniques of storing, controlling and conversing medical information of all kinds; those are more influential and flexible than paper base recording methods. It is the strategy of governments that seems to support a national healthcare infrastructure with a longitudinal patient record comprising a patients whole medical history from the birth to the death. At the same time, these advances increase a number of moral concerns. EPR may easily build a doctor-patient rapport through use of computerised notes, which the doctor and patient share. On the other hand, EPRs can damage the relationship and weaken faith. For instance, in the some developed countries there are medical data clearinghouses that trade medical patient information to insurance companies, police departments, employers, drug companies, and so on. As a result, patients are becoming unwilling to tell their doctors all about their medical conditions and the origin of them. Because of this doctor-patient r apport gets damaged and most crucially threatens to damage quality of care. Obviously, there is an anxiety and trade-off amid the need-to-know and the right to confidentiality that must be dealt with. Breach of medical confidentiality may seem to be easy for the reason that the competence of computerised systems. The harm to the patient whose confidentiality is dishonoured may be proportionately bigger as the quantity of information held within the EPR. But the merits comparing to the demerits are greater. The intention of this article is to trace the history of the efforts made by a Western industrialised nation to implement EPR, (b) to identify the benefits and issues arising, and (c) to reflect on the extent to which such an initiative is transferable to a developing country (Rogerson, 2000). The development in medical science is in step with the growth in various other fields, mainly the