Newt Gingrich and Dr. Kamal Thapar wrote an interesting opinion piece in AOL News on Monday, Dec. 6th, about electronic medical information.
The former speaker of the House and founder of the Center for Health Transformation and neurosurgeon at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., told the story of a 56-year-old woman who was admitted to Dr. Thapar's hospital ER with chest pains. This was not the first time she had experienced chest pains, but previous visits did not produce a reason for her illness.
While at Sacred Heart Hospital, the woman lapsed into a coma. According to the authors, hospital staff contacted her son, who couldn't provide much information. There is mention of her medical records, but I'm not sure how they were accessed - where they computerized? At any rate, her medical records were not detailed or apparently helpful to the clinicians.
She did have, however, a Facebook account, which included a detailed and complete account of her health status in her own words. On Facebook she posted months worth of information about her medications, symptoms, hospitalizations and conditions. She had detailed the dates, times and descriptions of how she was feeling at th etime and what was happening with her body, the authors said.
My first thought was why didn't her medical records have her medications, symptoms, hospitalizations and conditions listed, but that's another story. The important fact is that her medical information was available and it literally saved her life because it helped guide the physicians to what the problem was and therefore develop the proper treatment plan.
The takeaway from this opinion piece is that there is value in recording your medical conditions and keeping and updating your medical history. That's a strong vote for personal health records.
But there's something more to this story than even the personalized healthcare system - the meshing of the digital world and the healthcare industry - that the authors are advocating. The subtext of the opinion piece is that the woman was in control of her medical information and she, more importantly, chose to share it (likely just with her Facebook friends) over the Internet. I'm sure she is not the first person to share sensitive information about him or herself in this venue.
Being comfortable enough to share her medical information over the Internet means that she is felt her personal information was protected. It would be interesting to know if she feels the same way about EHRs. It would be even more interesting to know if all the other Facebook users who post sensitive information would feel secure about having their medical information in an EHR.
If the answer is yes, perhaps the industry should figure out a way to tap into the Facebook phenomenon of trusting that sensitive information you are sharing with a group of friends - the opt-in way to control who sees the information - will be protected and secure. Understanding this phenomenon could help drive public trust in EHRs, which in turn would help drive EHR adoption.
Or maybe not?
Photo by Mat_the_W via Creative Commons license.
