My Health Record System: Benefits And Advancements In Healthcare

Organ Systems and the Importance of Healthcare

Discuss about the Analysis of My Health Record Project.

First and foremost, health is associated with the ability of the body to function properly. Different parts of the human body are compiled to form organ systems. Integumentary and respiratory systems are some of the examples of the main organ systems. For instance, respiratory system consists of the following parts; mouth, lungs and trachea among other parts. These organ systems have different functions, for example, the respiratory system is responsible for the movement of air across different parts of the human body and excretory system can eject waste products such as sweat from the body. Therefore, health is concerned about the functioning of all the organ systems. Although an organ system is made up of different parts that have been synchronized, but the unusual functioning of one part of the organ system can affect the normal functioning of the entire organ system. For instance, heart failure can result in unusual functioning of the entire circulatory system (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).

Following these developments about the organ system, each part of the human body need to be handled with a lot of care. Currently, there are many technological advancements in the field of medicine that have simplified the entire process of treating patients. Some of the examples of these improvements includes the following; Augmented reality where the level of glucose in the human body especially in the blood can be examined using tears, imaging data using 3D printing that is used during surgery, crowdsourcing using online platforms such as Facebook that can be used to reduce the gap between the healthcare specialists such as nurses with their patients and Computerized Tomography (CT) scan that can be used to examine some of problems that are associated with the normal functioning of the human body (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).

The government of any country need to incorporate technical advancements in the field of

medicine into its hospitals aiming at satisfying the medical needs of its citizens. People’s health

is one of the core objectives that need to be attained by any government across the whole world. The citizens of any country are entitled to the right of accessing better health care services, therefore, it’s the responsibility of any government to provide better health services to its people ranging from children to the old. There are many ways on which the government can provide better health care services to its citizens. Some of the ways includes the following; providing free vaccination and immunization to the children, increasing the number of medical specialists such as cardiologists and psychiatrists, increasing the instruments that are used for treating patients, employing people to clean up both urban and rural centers aiming at reducing communicable diseases such as cholera and providing protection against any form of perils such as inadequate water supply (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).

Technological Advancements in the Field of Medicine

Consequently, the government of Australia has developed my health record system aiming at storing the data of the patients. Initially, this system was referred to as eHealth record system because the data is stored online. The following are some of the information about the patient that can be stored; types of medicine that has been prescribed to the patient, history of the disease that the patient is suffering from and developments of the complications ranging from the initial stage to its current stage (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018). This system permits medical specialists such as physiotherapists to access information about the patients. Different users of my health record system such as patients and doctors are granted permission to only access certain information that’s relevant to them at that moment. This is one of the ways on which the security of this system has been enhanced. There are some plans that are undergoing to register all the citizens of Australia before the beginning of 2019. Those people that will not be interested with the registration to the system will be given an opportunity of deregistering their accounts according to the Australia health agency (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018).

My health record system has many characteristics that enables it to function properly, and afterwards meet the needs and demands of its users, for example, patients and doctors. The following are some of the features of my health record system (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018).

• Ability to store the information about the patient.
• Protection of patient’s information.
• Easy access of data by medical specialists like nurses.

Benefits of my Health Record System

There are many benefits and advantages that are associated with my health record system (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018). Some of the benefits have been outlined below:

• Enhanced sharing of medical data among medical specialists such as nurses alongside distinct sections of the health centres.
• Availability of patient’s data.
• Assisting patients to take care of their health.
• Increased the time that medical professionals such as nurses spent with their patients by minimizing the time taken by these specialists in looking for medical data.

Vendor solution is associated with the suggestions about system designing; describing explicitly relevant tools such as software and hardware that can be synchronized to meet system requirements. Some of the vendor solutions includes the following; coupa vendor solution that

can help a company to control its finance, halo vendor solution that can provide data about the distribution of company’s products and 3PL warehouse manager that can be used to monitor the financial information of the company or an organization. The following are some of the features of these vendor solutions.  

Features of Coupa Solution

• Online storage of data.
• Storing information about company’s expenditure.
• Storing information about company’s budget.
• Provision of online invoice.
• Risks determination.
• Availability of audit reports (Azim, Islam & Sufian, 2016).

Features of Halo Solution

• Encrypting of the data.
• Verification process.
• Tools for modifying data and information.
• Internet of Things (IOT)
• Business solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
• Data synchronization (Palmblad, 2016).

Features of 3PL warehouse manager

• Business solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
• Ease of expansion.
• Very cheap.
• Online storage of data (NJOKU & OU, 2015).

Coupa vendor solution can be integrated in my health record system. This vendor solution can help a company to control its finances. Therefore, it can enable the hospital to manage and control its finances appropriately. On the other hand, halo vendor solution is concerned with the distribution of company’s products. Hence, it can be used in hospitals to manage its resources such as medicine. Also, it can be integrated in my health record system to enhance security of patient’s data since it involves data encryption. Finally, 3PL warehouse manager is concerned with the process of monitoring financial information of the company or an organization. Therefore, it can be applied to implement cloud storage technology in my health record system. Thus, patient’s information can be accessed with a lot of ease.  

Government’s Responsibility to Provide Better Healthcare Services

Cloud-based solutions is associated with cloud storage. Cloud storage is one of the major trends in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It’s controlled by hosting company. Currently, securing of data and information is very critical because of big data. Apart from data security, storing of data is also very critical (Yang & Jia, 2014). Following these developments, cloud storage is the most preferred technology or technique that can be used to store data. Information about many companies and organizations are susceptible to attacks by intruders, and afterwards can result in modification of the available data. There are many benefits that are associated with cloud storage technology.

• Less costly. Adopting of cloud storage is less costly as compared to the other methods of storing data, for example, flash disks and external hard disks. Therefore, companies and organizations that have adopted this technology have some advantages over others such as reducing the costs of storing data. For instance, reports have indicated that less than 3 cents are used to store data of about 1GB. Hence, many hospitals and medical centers can afford the costs that are incurred while installing cloud storage technology.
• Easy accessibility of data and information. Data that has been stored online can be accessed from any place across the world. Accessibility of data has enabled some companies that have several branches to share data and information easily between all the branches. Apart from accessing data from any place, data can also be accessed anytime of the day. Hence, medical specialists such as doctors alongside their patients can access medical data anytime when the need arises (Yang & Jia, 2014).
• Recovery of data and information. Data that has been stored in the computer can be susceptible to destruction. Data such as files and documents can be mistakenly deleted by computer users, therefore, affecting the availability of data or information. Apart from deleting data, it can also be modified by system users, hence affecting the integrity of the original data. However, this can be avoided by adopting cloud storage technology where data can be stored online. The data can be retrieved easily in case the available data in the internal computer storage has been corrupted. Thus, medical specialists like physicians can recover easily patient’s data that has been corrupted by system users.
• Data is updated automatically. The data that has been stored online can be automatically updated when the data and files that are in the computer have been updated by system

users. This is also referred to as syncing. Therefore, patient’s data can be automatically    updated (Yang & Jia, 2014).

• Security of data is enhanced. Data that has been stored online cannot be accessed by hackers and intruders because of incorporating of data access controls into the cloud storage technology. Some of the data access controls includes using of username and password to access certain information. The user of the data must provide correct credentials before accessing the data. Apart from access control mechanisms, data that has been stored online can also be encrypted, therefore, reliability of data is enhanced as a result. Hence, patient’s data can be secured from intruders and hackers (Yang & Jia, 2014).

There are some limitations that are associated with cloud storage technology. The following are some of the limitations that can be encountered while using cloud storage technology.

• Accessibility of data and information. Data and information that has been stored online cannot be accessed easily when the internet connection strength is very low. Generally, accessibility of data and information depends on the internet connection. Companies and organizations that are in areas with low internet speed cannot adopt cloud stored technology. Similarly, medical centers that are in areas with low internet connection cannot adopt cloud storage technology. Inaccessibility of data and information is one of the key issues that is encountered while using cloud storage technology.
• Privacy of the data and information. It’s unable to determine the correct owner of the data whether it’s the hosting company or the client. Therefore, there can be issues of privacy while storing patient’s information and data (Yang & Jia, 2014).  

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is associated with all the processes that are followed by programmers and developers of the systems ranging from determining of system requirements to testing and implementing of the system. Nowadays, designing a system is not very easy because of incorporation of human factors into the whole processes of system designing and development aiming at satisfying the needs and demands of system users. There are two techniques that can be used to approach the proposed system namely: adaptive and predictive SDLC (Öztürk, 2016).  Some of the pros and cons of these two categories of SDLC have been outlined below.

Pros of Adaptive SDLC

• Involvement of relevant system users in the whole process of system development, therefore, the needs of the users can be satisfied with a lot of ease.
• Enables system users to give their requirements for the proposed system.
• Enhances faster delivery of the system.
• High quality system can be developed (Öztürk, 2016).

Cons of Adaptive SDLC

• Wastage of time of system users since each stage of system development involves contribution of relevant users.
• The whole process of system development may take longer than expected since it involves many requirements.
• Difficulties in determining actual costs of the project (Öztürk, 2016).

Pros of Predictive SDLC

• Actual cost of the system can be determined in advance.
• Ease of understanding.
• Development of quality system since all the system requirements are stated explicitly.
• Duration of completing the system can be determined in advance (Sakul-Ung & Chutimaskul, 2017).

Cons of Predictive SDLC

• System testing is done at the final steps of developing the system.
• Predictive SDLC cannot be applied in complicated object-oriented systems (Sakul-Ung & Chutimaskul, 2017).

The Best Approach for the Project

Adaptive SDLC is the best technique that should be used in my health record system because the field of medicine is not constant rather it keeps on changing from time to time. This can enable medical specialists, for example, psychiatrists and physicians to add some new data and information to the system. Also, using this technique can result in development of high quality system because of involvement of relevant system users in each stage of developing the system (Öztürk, 2016). For instance, patients and medical specialists, for example, nurses can be consulted in the whole process of system development, therefore, the chances of developing a system that can meet the needs of the users is very high.

Conclusion

To conclude, my health record system is a very essential tool as evidenced throughout the paper. Health is associated with the ability of the body to function properly. Different parts of the human body are compiled to form organ systems. Integumentary and respiratory systems are some of the examples of the main organ systems. For instance, respiratory system consists of the following parts; mouth, lungs and trachea among other parts. These organ systems have different functions, for example, the respiratory system is responsible for the movement of air across different parts of the human body and excretory system can eject waste products such as sweat from the body. Establishment of the cause of patient’s illness by physicians is a bit tricky because it involves many processes, for example, understanding the history of the patient’s problem in advance. However, introduction to my health record system can help physicians to determine the source of patient’s problem with a lot of ease. This system monitors all the information about the patient, therefore, enabling physicians to comprehend easily about developments of patient’s complications. The process of adopting this technology in hospitals requires several vendor solutions, for example, coupa vendor solution that can enable the hospital to manage and control its finances appropriately, halo vendor solution that can be used in hospitals to manage its resources such as medicine and 3PL warehouse manager that can be used to implement cloud storage technology in my health record system. Besides, the project should use the adaptive approach because using this technique can result in development of high quality system because of involvement of relevant system users in each stage of developing the system, therefore, the chances of developing a system that can meet the needs of the users is very high.

References

Azim, S. N., Islam, T., & Sufian, A. (2016). Universal API for managing multiple cloud platforms (Doctoral dissertation, BRAC University).

Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. (2018). Wellbeing. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/wellbeing [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].

Digitalhealth.gov.au. (2018). My Health Record system and Healthcare Identifiers (HI) – Australian Digital Health Agency. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/get-started-with-digital-health/what-is-digital-health/features-of-the-my-health-record-system/my-health-record-system-healthcare-identifiers [Accessed 21 Mar. 2018].

NJOKU, D., & OU, K. A. (2015). EFFECTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR PROFITABILITY ENHANCEMENT IN THE COMPETITIVE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 3(12), 90-112.

Öztürk, V. (2016). Flexible and Adaptive Life Cycle Framework for Software Development. JSW, 11(9), 943-951.

Palmblad, M. (2016). Selection of a Suitable ePRO Solution: Benefit, Cost and Risk. EPro: Electronic Solutions for Patient-Reported Data, 107.

Sakul-Ung, P., & Chutimaskul, W. (2017, February). A predictive model for successful software development projects with information technology strategic alignment. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software and Computer Applications (pp. 39-45). ACM.

Yang, K., & Jia, X. (2014). DAC-MACS: Effective data access control for multi-authority cloud

storage systems. In Security for Cloud Storage Systems (pp. 59-83). Springer, New York, NY.