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Putting the patient at the centre of electronic health
records
Across the
world,
healthcare systems are looking to
create
regional
and local
electronic health
records to improve the
quality of
care while
reducing
costs.
However,
as a
Gartner report for the Ministry of
Health and
Social
Affairs in
Sweden
emphasised, the right decisions need
to be made
right at
the start of
such
projects, if they are also to
“transform
the
healthcare
system from
being
physician-centric
to
patient-centric.”
Similarly, an
independent review of health and
social care IT in
the UK
recently stressed
the need to break away from
the historical
pattern
of
building information
systems around hospital
departments and
other care
settings. “The patient
must be at the
centre of all
information
systems,” it said.
Kerry
Stratton,
InterSystems’ managing director,
healthcare,
argues that putting
patients
at
the centre of care should
mean creating a
record just once; on
their
first
contact with the
healthcare system.
Subsequent events can be
added to
create a
rich
electronic health record
over time, if the right
foundation
technology
is
chosen.
One
country that
is pushing ahead in this area is
Sweden. By the
end of 2011,
all of its 21
healthcare regions should be
connected to a
national patient
summary record,
known as the NPÖ. The
system, built on
InterSystems
HealthShare, is already
in use in Orebro
County Council,
where
it has
attracted significant
attention,
including
coverage on
Swedish
TV.
For
more
information about InterSystems,
HealthShare and
other
information in
this
sponsored feature, please
contact Alison
Singleton on
alison.singleton@intersystems.com or
call
on +44 (0 ) 1753 829 670. Alternatively, download the InterSystems
white
paper, Creating Regional and National Electronic Health
Records (pdf 2MB).
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