Dr. Oz (as seen on Oprah) Discusses How Electronic Medical Records Improve Care – New York Presbyterian moves forward from pilot program

Well since this article was published, we all know were Dr. Oz who appears on Oprah works. The hospital provides care for 20% of the population of New York and is the first large institution to grow from the pilot stage. What does Dr. Oz say about the paper charts he is handed….

“The paper-based system is sort of ‘Here, and good luck,’ ” Dr. Oz said. “It’s cumbersome and dangerous.” The online personal health record makes efficient communication and continuity of care far easier, Dr. Oz said. It can be accessed by the patient and, with permission, relatives and a patient’s personal physician.”

Last week I posted about the regenerative medicine on Oprah where Dr. Oz took us through some amazing new technology with organs being grown from stem cells and surgically implanted.

Something I didn’t know was that 20 percent of heart-surgery patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days, so electronic records have to me a must here by all means, anyway the hospital goes forward with the new records system and Dr. Oz gives his endorsement to electronic medical records too. BD

Online personal health records — controlled by patients themselves, not by hospitals, doctors, insurers or employers — have been available for years. Yet only a small percentage of Americans have digital personal health records today, analysts estimate.

A major obstacle to adoption has been getting useful medical and patient information into personal health records. Typing one’s personal health information into an online form is time-consuming, mind-numbing and error-prone.

To overcome that challenge, Microsoft and Google have announced partnerships in recent months with large health care providers like Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente to explore transferring patient data automatically into personal health records.

New York-Presbyterian has been working with Microsoft for more than a year, not only on technical matters but also ease-of-use concerns with patients. The introduction will be gradual, beginning with heart patients, who will be told of the potential benefits of personal health records when they visit a New York-Presbyterian hospital or outpatient clinics.

Initially, patients will be given on-site help signing on and setting up passwords, and access to the Web portal for personal health records, myNYP.org, will be controlled.