Electronic Health Records May Potentially Save Lives

One of the greatest benefits to EHRs like myOSCAR is that it facilitates better communication between the health care provider and the patient. The messaging feature within myOSCAR for example enables the patient to ask questions of their physician regarding a specific treatment or test result while also allowing the physician to read notes that patients have written on their health record.

In a Toronto family practice this past April, electronic health records also enabled one physician to quickly send out a recall notice for a drug that many of her patients were using. With regards to her experience, she commented, "When I received the fax from the manufacturer, I ran a search for all patients on this drug. I also know how to put in alerts, and generate a mail-out. This wasn't difficult to do..."

While this may not have been a life-or-death matter, one can foresee where the facilitation of particular drug recalls would potentially help save patients' lives in the future.

To read the whole blog/ article, see:
http://drgreiver.blogspot.com/2007/04/drug-recall.html