Design Proposal Bibliography

Problem Statement

The electronic Health Records application is revolutionary and benefits both medical workers and patients. It is effective for medical workers to access the necessary information to provide accurate treatment plans for patients. Hence, data collection is crucial to the use of EHR. Patients need to upload their personal information into the system to help the medical providers in decision-making. According to Cimino and Shortliffe (2006)’s Biomedical Informatics, “a hospital-based healthcare system will not automatically learn about pediatric immunizations done in private pediatric offices, or public health clinics, around town. So, special procedures and extra work are required to collect all relevant patient data” (Cimino & Shortliffe, 2006, p.405). It shows the lack of information transformation for the EHR database. It is difficult and important for both patients and medical workers to have up-to-date information for decision-making. Therefore, it is significant to create a platform that could be able to gather patients’ information immediately to help medical workers and physicians efficiently and effectively.

Description of the technology

Mobile health seems to provide all medical workers and informatics specialists a solution to create a path for people directly engaging with the EHR database. In this generation, people’s life is dependent on mobile phones. It provides medical and informatics specialists opportunities to communicate with clients through smartphones. There are two different types of apps, according to Mueller (2020)’s book—Developing Medical Apps and MHealth Interventions could associate with EHR. “Apps to assist decision-making, e.g., an app to help healthcare professionals decide whether to prescribe antibiotics and Apps to help people with long-term health problems to self-manage their condition” (Muller, 2020, p.1). Both types of apps could bond with EHR databases for the convenience of both parties

Moreover, Mobile health apps could create a visualized platform for patients to understand their body condition easily and effectively. The use of visualization would certainly be necessary to encounter patients’ needs. According to Muller, “Visualizations can also be used to communicate information to different audiences. This can be for tasks such as education, evaluation/monitoring, summarizing of information, and for decision-making purposes” (p.192). Rather than a sophisticated medical chart that is written by medical specialists and physicians, people would prefer more understandable informative communication through visualization.

Design Statement

I hope to create an app like the healthcare system. It needs to directly associate with a medical institution or an authorized organization that has a safe gateway to access the electronic health record. Patients can pay anally or monthly to access their health records. Certainly, medical institutions could look at the health record directly from the EHR database, but I also want to add other features to the app. For example, if a hospital has no way to access the EHR database, they could use the emergency QR Code on the patient’s smartphone to download the EHR right away to provide the best treatments.

Client / Users Description

The Mhealth platform is aimed to personalize patients’ medical data to provide first care for every individual who needs medical assistance. The platform would gather data from the EHRs to understand and evaluate a person’s body condition. For people who are chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, and long-term heart problems. The Mhealth platform would provide sufficient assistance and professional treatment plans.

On the other hand, hospitals, EMR Unites, and healthcare companies will all benefit from this platform. Doctors and paramedics could share the patient’s health record in the first place for emergent medical help and treatments. Healthcare companies could generate personalized insurance plans with more reasonable charges to help those who need financial assistance.

Criteria and Constraints

There is a privacy problem in the information-gathering process of this app and platform. The privacy problem is not new in this area of study. Muller also indicates this concern as he states, “Given the security features of blockchain, there is presently a growing excitement about using this technology to manage Electronic Health Records (EHRs). If these records were stored on the cloud, blockchain could be used to maintain the privacy and security of these records whilst also improving interoperability and conforming to data protection regulations” (p.182). Most apps on people’s smartphones are sponsored by certain parties or groups looking for the maximum benefit from the app. Therefore, there is a good chance for the app and the platform to silently collect unauthorized data from EHR. Therefore, medical institutions and healthcare companies may not share their data because of the possibility of cyberattacks and breaches.