TPO46 Integrate Essay

In the lecture, the professor casts doubt on the reading passage’s idea that storing patients’ medical records in electronic databases has several advantages over traditional paper-based record keeping. The professor asserts that the benefits are actually uncertain.

To begin with, according to the reading passage, electronic medical records will reduce costs of storing and transferring.

The professor argues that the cost savings are unlikely as the reading suggests. He says that the doctors just keep the paper records as an emergency backup and most doctors who adopt electronic record keeping still have to pay storage costs associated with paper-based record keeping.

On top of that, the reading passage claims that the use of electronic medical records will help reduce the chances of medical errors. On the contrary, the professor rebuts that the electronic records cannot eliminate the possibility of errors. She says that doctors still use pen and paper while examining patients. It is usually the office staff of a doctor who will enter the information at a later time from the handwritten documents into electronic systems. So poor handwriting can still lead to errors.

Lastly, the professor rebuts the reading’s point that electronic medical records will be beneficial to medical research through obtaining a great amount of data from patient records by stating that medical research would not necessarily benefit from electronic record keeping. The professor points out that access to all medical information is subject to strict privacy laws in the United States. Researchers who want to collect data from electronic medical records have to follow strict and complicated procedures and obtain many permissions including patient permissions along the way. Often such permissions are not granted.