Healthcare and the Internet

In Singapore, "an Internet portal is being set up that will allow information sharing among healthcare professionals and institutions in Singapore. This includes access to the electronic medical record of all patients under their charge."

A similar trend is happening in the US. "In Central New Jersey, some doctor's offices and hospitals have already made the transition, tossing heaps of medical records into storage in favor of managing patients' charts electronically. The idea is to centralize people's medical records to provide instant access to physicians, pharmacies, hospitals and the patients themselves."

It provides cost savings to the doctor, and this, in turn, might lower the costs for the patient.

The greatest concern? Data security, of course, and privacy issues.

This is a great first step, but still, it excludes the choice for the patient. I believe it would be a great step for a patient to be able to track the record of hospitals, before checking in. As a hospital in the UK is doing. "A top London hospital has become the first in the UK to publish figures on the number of people who die while undergoing treatment there."

Now that is called choice provision!

(By Asia Business Consulting)