HDW204 Healthcare in the Digital World Report 2 Sample

Task Summary

For this assessment, you are required to write a report (1800 words) which discusses and critically analyses a patient-facing digital technology platform with reference to evidence-based practice. Patient-facing digital technology or patient technology refers to any technology in which patients interact with to partake in health care or clinical activities, such as monitoring disease progression and adhering to treatment regimens (Polhemus et al., 2019). Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Context

As we live in a digital world, our patient/clients will be using digital platforms on a daily basis.

Therefore, it makes sense to use digital platforms for the assessment, monitoring and support of our patient’s health. However, we do know that with any form of technology, there are benefits and limitations and measures need to be taken to ensure safety. For that reason, you are expected to critically analyse the benefits and limitations associated with a particular patient-facing digital technology platform and examine this digital technology in light of evidence-based practice.

Via this assessment, you will gain skills in producing an informative and engaging report, improve your ability to effectively and accurately communicate information, increase your knowledge and understanding of patient facing technology and improve your academic skills.

Task Instructions

To complete this assessment task, select one of the patient-facing digital technology platforms below and consider the following questions:

1. How does the patient-facing digital technology platform you have chosen improve self-management through education, remote monitoring, remote support, and/or treatment adherence?

2. In what ways does your selected patient-facing digital technology platform address unmet needs in areas of high demand that traditional approaches have not fulfilled?

3. How does this patient-facing digital technology platform shift the power dynamics and transform the therapeutic relationship between the patient/client and healthcare professional?

4. Does your chosen patient-facing technology platform ensure patient safety and information
security?

5. What equity issues related to access are raised by your chosen patient-facing digital technology platform?

6. How does your chosen patient-facing technology platform impact the role of healthcare professionals?

Patient-facing digital technology platforms:

Please select one (1) of the following options for your report:

• Focus on a specific type of Electronic Health Record (EHR).

• Focus on a specific type of Sensors and Wearable Technology.

• Focus on a specific type of Mobile Phone Applications.

• Focus on a specific type of Online Peer Support Communities.

Please also be aware of the following requirements:

• Present your own original work using multiple academic references from academic books, peer reviewed scientific journal articles and other credible sources (.edu, .gov and .org webpages).

• You must adhere to the Report Structure Guidelines document in the Assessment resources area on Blackboard.

• Adhere to the word count (1800 words (+/-10%) excluding the reference list.

• Academic references are to be included on a separate page using appropriate APA guidelines.

• Your assessment must be submitted as a word document and not in protected view.

• Your assessment should be in 12-point font, Arial or Times New Roman, 1.5 line spaced and a minimum of 2.5cm margins.

Solution

1.0 Introduction

Electronic Health Records define an electronic and digitised version of a patient's medical history. This record is maintained by the provider, time after time. This data includes demographics, problems, progress reports, medication, past medical history, vital signs and many other factors. As time advances, so does the complexity of lifestyle and diseases. That is why it has become important for the healthcare sector of Australia to gather as much medical data regarding a patient at any time of clinical engagement. University Assignment Help, The purpose of utilising the advancement is it helps the providers in managing their care facility in a better way. Also, due to this technology, the healthcare sector can now be educated and up-to-date regarding patients' conditions. Overall, due to this new adaptation in the Australian healthcare sector rate of delayed treatment is reducing drastically.

2.0 Body

2.1 The way Electronic Health Records improve self-management through treatment adherence

The My health record, the digital National healthcare system in Australia, aims to secure the online security of the health information of patients, medical practitioners and healthcare institutions. It is available to everyone in Australia with a medical card or individual health identifier (IHI) (Australian Government, 2022, November 15). Telehealthcare is one of the major entities of the national EHR system, where patients can consult with their healthcare service provider remotely when no physical examination is needed to diagnose their health issues. Physicians spend a specific amount of time on EHR-related tasks. Through this, educators have an opportunity to help learners leverage the capabilities inherent to the EHR and thus improve the quality of patient care. It is beneficial for citizens of Australia who are living in remote locations of the country. The Health Ministry of Australia established those EHS healthcare systems in the year 2012 and it is being probed as a transformational initiative in the healthcare system. It is a fact that before establishing EHS, people living in remote areas had to travel a long distance for medical consultancies. It is also becoming easier for medical practitioners to monitor their patients remotely. It is also becoming easier for patients to keep their medical histories archived digitally. Online medicines facilitate the purchase of essential medicines at a low cost. Regarding the EHS system, it is becoming easier for medical practitioners and healthcare institutions to involve more people in offering their medical service

Figure 1: Gross value-added Health Care and Social Assistance Industry in Australia
Source: (Statista, 2023, August 1)

The above graphical statistics show that since 2012, the gross value of the healthcare and social assistance industry has been increasing in Australia (Statista, 2023, August 1). From that perspective, it can be said that remote monitoring is engaging more people and stakeholders in the healthcare system. An EHR can provide feedback tools to educators to monitor trainees' progress. For example, as trainees RIME (Reporter-Interpreter-Manager-Educator) training process, they also progress in collaboration with the team, clients, reporter, manager and level of diligence. Here, diligence is defined as paying careful attention to patient care information.

2.2 Patient-facing digital technology platforms address unmet needs

Five sectors in the healthcare industry are in high demand. These are Nursing, mental health, public health, allied health and medical practitioners’ jobs. The lack of medical professionals and paramedical staff in the healthcare industry is a negative factor in traditionally providing healthcare services, such as formal interaction with patients and others. Allotment of time for healthcare institutions for health issues that are not so critical and do not need a physical check-up decreases the time for observing patients at a critical stage. In these scenarios, a limited workforce is a negative factor in increasing access to the healthcare system. Telemedicine is becoming a major practice that is becoming a transformational factor for the changes in the healthcare sector in Australia.

The above graphical presentation shows that Australia comes in the top ten countries in providing access to its healthcare system. Since 2012, the net participation of people in Australia's national healthcare system has been increasing (Vankar, 2022). Electronic healthcare practices are including more people in their national healthcare system. Rather than the traditional approach, it is becoming easier for government healthcare institutions to provide them with a good medical facility. People living in rural areas are the key benefit of the government initiative of the EHS medical system (Australian Government, 2022, November 15). They are getting healthcare services through telemedicine facilities of the EHS healthcare system.

2.3 EHR platform shifts the power dynamics and transforms the therapeutic relationship between the patient/client and healthcare

'My Health Record' (MyHR), the national digital health record for Australia, significantly works for the development of patients. The EHR system is advanced and allows people to access their health information in a gist. Also, MyHR provides meaningful and accurate information to patients to assist in their improved clinical administration. The patients can keep their records of vaccinations, scripts, and emergency contacts here and also the ones having Medicare or Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) can use MyHR (Lee et al., 2021). In Australia, patients need a myGov account to access their records.

MyHR conveys digital tools to the patients with which they can make decisions regarding their care. MyHR helps patients avoid unnecessary testing by collecting pathology records and diagnostic imaging reports. Along with that, MyHR aids the patients in finding their previous results so that they can avoid having to retake blood and perform scans. Other than that, the technology of MyHR is accurate and develops digital tools so that the patient can easily connect with doctors and other medical professionals and find the correct health guide to solve their medical issues (Cheng et al., 2022). MyHR reduces test duplications, helps patients find information from outside the local hospital network in Australia, and connects them with other numerous healthcare providers they would not normally be able to access. For example, MyHR helps patients communicate with General Practitioners (GP), private specialists and community healthcare practitioners with ease so that they can vent their medical issues to them without confronting any other obstacles (Abdulai et al., 2023). MyHR works efficiently and does not make the patients wait for the GP practice to open when it is past their duty hours (Walsh et al., 2021). This accessible EHR also enables the upload of discharge summaries or letters from the Emergency Department (ED) and the broader hospitals uncomplicatedly.

2.4 EHR platform ensures patient safety and information security

My Health Record (MyHR) has great concerns about patient safety and it ensures security in the MyHR system developing high standards of patient care. EHR takes too much information from the patient and stores it simply. Though there are some issues with EHR storing all the patients' private data, it is still capable of defending against hacking and protecting the patients' vital information. EHR backs up all the data and stores the files in a distributed cloud storage, thus improving the accessibility of a document (Pang et al., 2020). Although this process is prone to security threats, the advanced EHR is efficient and guards against the necessary information.

On the other hand, EHR centralises patient information and supports healthcare providers in decision-making. In particular, helps in improving the safety of the patients or clients associated with MyHR. Along with that, the patient-facing technology platform reduces the chances of medical errors and upgrades the quality of care. However, MyHR is secure, convenient, and faster, which is necessary in healthcare. The My Health Record Act depicts that the staff members authorised by a healthcare organisation can access and view a patient's record for providing medical care to them. Other than that, the healthcare organisation has control over its staff and authorises them to access the EHR system as a part of their responsibility in healthcare delivery (Vimalachandran et al., 2020). Therefore, it can be stated that EHR follows a series of strict rules and regulations to ensure a patient's safety. Only authorised members in the medical sector can access a patient's private information. This indicates that there is no place for unwanted sources to enter the system of MyHR. The backup, security policy and restrictions of MyHR enable the system to tactfully handle the valuable information of several clients or patients.

2.5 EHR raises equity issues related to access

Electronic Health Records keep the data regarding the patient's history, creating a chance of Security breaches. This issue has raised a question about patient privacy in the Australian healthcare sector. Security breaches often allow information to get leaked to others without the patient's consent or authorisation (Tapuria et al., 2021). Therefore, it is creating panic among the patients and their families. Not just that, they are refusing to submit any kind of information in the healthcare sector. Therefore, it is becoming challenging for the doctor to identify patients' causes of problems. In the year of 2012, the government of Australia took the initiative to set up the practices of Electronic Health Care to gather data to provide effective treatment (Holt et al., 2020a). However, it has become quite impossible for the government to monitor the huge amount of data. Therefore, the data leakage chance started to become more prominent. Even 79.3% of Australian citizens think that their government is not capable at all to secure their privacy (Holt et al., 2020a). According to approximately 67% of people, patient data is being shared among various government agencies without the permission of that individual (Holt et al., 2020a). Also, another problem rising in the Australian healthcare sector is regarding data accuracy. Every organisation must keep the data up-to-date after a patient's visit (Nurgalieva et al., 2020). Often it is seen that medical workers forget to do so, even in many cases, due to their busy schedules, they cannot complete that task. Due to that particular period, all data becomes useless to the healthcare sector. As a result, they have to gather every bit of information from scratch. In addition, as the privacy issue is rising, patients refuse to cooperate.

2.6 EHR Platform impact the Role of healthcare professional

This advancement was introduced to the Australian healthcare sector to monitor a patient’s ups and downs at every step. Therefore, the complexity of the disease gets increased on a drastic level, which creates challenges in finding proper solutions. As Electronic Health Records get introduced, it becomes easier for medical workers to evaluate every step of the patients' response (Semantha et al., 2023). Therefore, with time, they start to understand the root of the problem and provide better medicine and treatment. Also, with the help of this technology, the healthcare professionals of Australia are becoming more capable of providing better diagnoses. Electronic Health Record technology allows organisations and their workers to save time through its centralised management procedure (Opipari-Arrigan et al., 2020). Healthcare professionals in Australia can create more effective healthcare plans with accurate clinical data gathered in a unified platform. Doctors sometimes must review a patient's medical history to recommend further medication or other treatments. However, in many cases in previous times, the hospital itself or the patient parties tend to lose some of the medical documents. However, due to this new improvement, patients do not have to take any headache, even the doctors can find the proper information without losing time. Another advantage brought on to healthcare professionals is the automation of paperwork. Australia has guided healthcare organisations toward automating administrative tasks by leveraging the EHR system.

3.0 Conclusion

Following the above study, it can be concluded that Electronic Health Record technology has brought several advantages to the healthcare sector of Australia. Not just the healthcare professionals getting an advantage in saving time or reducing extra headaches, but also the patients are having more satisfactory treatments. Due to the EHR system, healthcare organisations have every bit of information regarding the patients they require the most, which makes it easy to provide effective treatment. The more the patients are getting satisfied, the more positive reviews they provide the organisations. Due to this factor, a positive relationship is building between patients and medical professionals in Australia. Although some challenges are rising due to privacy issues by EHR, organisations are tightening their security policies.

Reference List

Abdulai, A. F., Naghdali, H., Ghirmay, E. T., Adam, F., & Bawafaa, E. (2023). Trauma-Informed Care in Digital Health Technologies: Protocol for a Scoping Review. JMIR Research Protocols, 12(1), e46842. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/46842

Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. (2022, November 15). Electronic Health Records. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. https://www.health.gov.au/topics/health-technologies-and-digital-health/about/electronic-health-records#about-electronic-health-records

Cheng, C., Gearon, E., Hawkins, M., McPhee, C., Hanna, L., Batterham, R., & Osborne, R. H. (2022). Digital health literacy as a predictor of awareness, engagement, and use of a national web-based personal health record: population-based survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(9), e35772. DOI: 10.2196/35772

Lee, J., Park, Y. T., Park, Y. R., & Lee, J. H. (2021). Review of national-level personal health records in advanced countries. Healthcare Informatics Research, 27(2), 102-109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4258/hir.2021.27.2.102

Nurgalieva, L., Cajander, Å., Moll, J., Åhlfeldt, R. M., Huvila, I., & Marchese, M. (2020). ‘I do not share it with others. No, it’s for me, it’s my care’: On sharing of patient accessible electronic health records. Health informatics journal, 26(4), 2554-2567. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220912559

Opipari-Arrigan, L., Dykes, D. M., Saeed, S. A., Thakkar, S., Burns, L., Chini, B. A., ... & Kaplan, H. C. (2020). Technology-Enabled Health Care Collaboration in
Pediatric Chronic Illness: Pre-Post Interventional Study for Feasibility, Acceptability, and Clinical Impact of an Electronic Health Record–Linked Platform for Patient-Clinician Partnership. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 8(11), e11968. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/11968

Pang, P. C. I., McKay, D., Chang, S., Chen, Q., Zhang, X., & Cui, L. (2020). Privacy concerns of the Australian My Health Record: Implications for other large-scale opt-out personal health records. Information Processing & Management, 57(6), 102364. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102364

Semantha, F. H., Azam, S., Shanmugam, B., & Yeo, K. C. (2023). PbDinEHR: A Novel Privacy by Design Developed Framework Using Distributed Data Storage and Sharing for Secure and Scalable Electronic Health Records Management. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 12(2), 36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan12020036

Statista, (2023, August 1). Australia: Gross value added Health Care and Social Assistance Industry 2022. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/875127/australia-gross-value-added-health-care-and-social-assistance-industry/

Tapuria, A., Porat, T., Kalra, D., Dsouza, G., Xiaohui, S., & Curcin, V. (2021). Impact of patient access to their electronic health record: systematic review. Informatics for Health and Social Care, 46(2), 194-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17538157.2021.1879810

Vankar, P. (2022) Health Care System: Access to care ranking of select countries worldwide 2021, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1290340/health-care-system-access-to-care-ranking-of-select-countries/ (Accessed: 03 August 2023).

Vimalachandran, P., Liu, H., Lin, Y., Ji, K., Wang, H., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Improving accessibility of the Australian My Health Records while preserving privacy and security of the system. Health Information Science and Systems, 8, 1-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs13755-020-00126-4

Walsh, L., Hemsley, B., Allan, M., Dahm, M. R., Balandin, S., Georgiou, A., ... & Hill, S. (2021). Assessing the information quality and usability of My Health Record within a health literacy framework: What’s changed since 2016?. Health Information Management Journal, 50(1-2), 13-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1833358319864734

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