Healthcare Informatics

Patient portals, electronic medical records, and personal monitoring devices are three of the most revolutionary technologies in the healthcare sector. Each of these technologies presents patients with the potential to empower themselves, taking control of their own healthcare outcomes, and taking part in their overall healthcare goals. These technologies also streamline healthcare administration and minimize medication and billing errors. However, each of these technologies is also constrained by a range of issues related to accessibility, with potent socioeconomic class disparities evident.

Security and standardization of healthcare technologies are also proving problematic. Patient portals, electronic medical records, and personal monitoring devices are all technologies that have the potential to radically improve the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes, as well as improve overall patient experiences. Because of their abundant benefits, these technologies need to be embraced and promoted through effective public health policies. Otherwise, disparities will continue to threaten to exacerbate the already significant social determinants of health.

Patient Portals Online portals are rapidly becoming the main point of contact and communication between patients and the healthcare system. Patient portals allow patients to access their own medical history and medication records, learn more about their conditions and information related to prevention and self care, and also manage their billing. The technology is “becoming more widely used and are expected to promote patient engagement with health care,” (Ancker, Barron, Rockoff, et al., 2011, p. 1117).

Enrollment in patient portals has been shown to be around 70% (Goel, Brown, Williams, et al., 2011). Therefore, patient portals can and should penetrate the healthcare system to a greater extent than they already are. Yet patient portals have yet to be standardized, and reveal the shocking disparities with regards to demographics like age and ethnicity. All nonwhite minorities, and older patients, are the least likely to be enrolled in the patient portals (Goel, Brown, Williams, et al., 2011).

Recent research on patient portal usage shows that those “most at risk” for common diseases like diabetes “may fall further behind” in terms of healthcare outcomes due to the disparities in use (Sarkar, Karter, Liu, et al, 2011). Disparities in patient portal use is also associated with overall disparities in health literacy, with patients who already have strong health literacy being more likely to use the portals versus patients with weak health literacy (Sarkar, Karter, Liu, et al., 2010).

These findings reveal strong implications for how healthcare organizations and perhaps more importantly, health policymakers, can capitalize on technology to reduce social disparities in health. Electronic Medical Records Electronic medical records offer tremendous potential for reducing overall medical errors, particularly medication errors. Used judiciously throughout the healthcare system, electronic medical records have the potential to create more patient-centric delivery of services with improved patient satisfaction and improved outcomes (Baldwin, Singh, Sittig, et al., 2017).

In most cases, the electronic medical records can be easily tethered to the patient portals, “as a promising mechanism to support greater patient engagement,” (Irizarry, Dabbs & Curran, 2015, p. e148). The electronic medical record may include information related to laboratory and test results, diagnoses, patient health history, and any other pertinent information that can be used by all members of a healthcare team, thereby improving continuity of care (Alpert, Krist, Aycock, et al., 2016).

Because of the proven benefits of electronic health records, the federal government has invested in programs that promote the technology and its standardization in American healthcare organizations (Bayer, Santelli & Klitzman, 2015). However much electronic health records benefit patients and organizations alike, there remain several concerns about their use, mainly with regards to the security of the data, and preserving patient privacy and confidentiality (Bayer, Santelli & Klitzman, 2015). Concerns over data security may be exacerbated among vulnerable patient populations, including minors as well a seniors (Bayer, Santelli & Klitzman, 2015).

Rather than impede their usage and widespread implementation, these challenges should simply encourage organizations to make their electronic health records more robust and invest more in information security. Personal Monitoring Devices and Apps Patient self-monitoring technologies including small handheld and take home devices, as well as smartphone apps, are increasingly penetrating the healthcare landscape. These technologies, like patient portals, present the potential to empower patients and create a more patient-centric healthcare system.

All health information technologies, including smartphone apps for self-monitoring of different patient conditions, offer “consumer-friendly features with easy log-in access, real-time tracking, and simplified data display,” (Baldwin, Singh, Sittig, et al., 2017, p. 81). The self-monitoring devices have been shown to improve communications between patients and their care providers too (Fletcher, Hinton, Hartmann-Boyce, et al., 2016). The use of self-monitoring devices for diabetes and hypertension have already revealed their benefits in terms of improving outcomes (Or & Tao, 2014).

Like other patient-centric information technologies, though, the ethical implications of their use include how they may exacerbate (or alternatively, minimize) social disparities, and also how these devices ensure privacy and data security. Conclusion Patient health information technologies like patient portals, electronic health records, and self-monitoring devices can be easily integrated with all areas of healthcare. These technologies have the potential to improve the patient experience, improving overall health literacy and patient empowerment.

Therefore, these technologies aim to fulfill the ethical objectives of healthcare in providing high standards and quality of care. To achieve their lofty goals, these technologies need to be more widely implemented, more secure, better integrated, and issued in conjunction with health literacy programs. References Alpert, J.M., Krist, A.H., Aycock, R.A., et al. (2016). Applying multiple methods to comprehensively evaluate a patient portal’s effectiveness to convey. Journal of.