Electronic health records and other devices are set to make a major mark on the healthcare industry. Individuals are finding innovative ways to use technology to improve patient care, gather information for use in population-based medicine and bring greater efficiency to a system that currently has significant duplication and waste.
The latest example of this comes from a recent study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, which showed that social media sites may be an effective way for clinical researchers to gather information about their participants.
The Arizona State University researchers said that their findings, which showed that lithium is ineffective at preventing the progression of Lou Gehrig's disease, were disappointing from a medical standpoint. However, they showed that these types of electronic tools could play a major role in gathering information from patients for use in clinical trials or public health initiatives.
For the study, the researchers set up a network on the site PatientsLikeMe, which allowed users who had taken lithium for Lou Gehrig's disease to input information in a standardized format. This allowed the study to collect vast amounts of information from the target population much more quickly and easily than traditional research methods would have allowed.
Jamie Haywood, who led the study, told the Wall Street Journal that most clinical investigations would have spent more time simply enrolling patients. In that amount of the time, the researchers were able to find the right participants, collect information and arrive at conclusions. He said that this approach to clinical studies could have tremendous promise.
Another tool that is gaining widespread acclaim in the healthcare community is the iPad. Many medical professionals believe that the device could be a powerful implement for doctors to access and create electronic health records for their patients.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by Health IT News found that many doctors believe the device is ready to play a role in electronic health records. A total of 48 percent said that they believe it could implemented in clinics and doctor's offices tomorrow.
The findings show that providers are much more ready to utilize tools like the iPad for accessing electronic health records. These types of results show that the country may be on the cusp of accepting a greater role for technology in healthcare, and these innovative ways of using technology could bring many improvements.