The swine flu outbreak has many medical facilities evaluating their ability to coordinate information with other agencies but pandemics aren't the only threat. Hurricanes and earthquakes send thousands of victims to hospitals and doctors' offices not prepared to handle the load. The latest generation of medical software allows these providers to better handle the information flow accompanying a large influx of patients.
EMR Systems Organize Information
EMR and other medical software applications are commonly used in medical facilities to gather and analyze patient information. Users create tags so each encounter resulting from a specific event is easily extracted from the patient database. This information is valuable to public agencies studying the incident and cataloging the victims.
Medical software allows analysts to make predictions. A chart of patient temperatures could show a rise in the number and severity of fevers. Tracking certain symptoms could alert an office to a pandemic outbreak, allowing them to notify authorities so help can be sent to the area before the outbreak becomes severe.
Macros allow medical staff to enter information more quickly and in a standard format. Victims of a disaster will have common information in the encounter data and a macro allows a record to be created with the information already entered. Having a template simplifies analysis of the data at a later date since all information will be standardized.
Communication Outside of EMR
Nearly any application is medical software if used in that capacity. Providers have discovered electronic communication makes it easier to stay informed on local conditions so they can be prepared for events before they happen.
Internet forums allow doctors from all over the world to discuss medical cases, sharing information to discover research breakthroughs impossible twenty years ago. Public agencies and medical providers use email to notify each other to changing conditions in an area so it is easier to respond to widespread natural disasters.
Twitter has been used recently as an effective way for government agencies to keep the public and medical facilities informed about disasters such as wildfires. In a rapidly changing disaster, the communication speed of Twitter exceeds even mass emails.
The Future of Medical Software
As EMR becomes more widespread and standardized, analysts foresee a world where all medical and public agencies are linked on a local, state, national or even global level. Medical providers will push information to public agencies and the agencies can rapidly build databases on pandemic outbreaks or injuries from disasters. Providers will share information and get a big picture view of an evolving situation.
Critics of this type of patient database have cited privacy concerns, but data shared in this manner would be anonymous. The spread of a pandemic or the analysis of disaster victims doesn't require personal information on the patients. Large scale trends are the points of interest not individual cases. Investigators who need specific information can contact providers directly.
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