1. COVID-19 helped push the medical world in a new direction. The
pandemic allowed the technology world to take over medicine by
making it easily accessible to patients from the comforts of their
home. Telehealth, also known as Telemedicine, is defined as the use
of medical information that is exchanged from one site to another
through electronic communication to improve a patient’s health
(About telemedicine, 2018). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many
physicians were concerned about the safety and wellbeing of their
patients, therefore encouraged their patients to have their routine
appointments done through telehealth unless it was an emergency to
help stop the spread of the virus. One of the most important
influential aspects of eHealth is the fact that physicians were able to
attend a lot more patients through virtual check in visits rather than
in person (Telemedicine: The good, the bad, the pleasantly surprising,
2020). This allowed patients to see their physicians more easily since
no wait times were necessary. Another important aspect to note is
that during the pandemic shutdowns and quarantine, mental health
problems were on the rise and with eHealth, this allowed patients to
have frequent therapy sessions without leaving their homes (Liu et
al., 2021).
2. Technology diffusion is the development and dissemination of
technology which is very popular in the medical world. I strongly
believe safety is the most important area of focus because patient
safety always comes first. With technology diffusion on the rise,
federal legislation should focus more on protecting patient
information especially since a lot of health care providers are now
working from home. Electronic healthcare records (EHR) need to be
properly secured because medical facilities use EHR to upload and
share patient clinical records as well as physician notes (How
information technology impacts patient safety, 2021). Individuals tend
to forget that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) was put into place in 1996 solely for the protection of
sensitive patient health information and cannot be disclosed for any
reason without the consent of the patient. With that being said, the
federal legislation needs to provide a stronger secured network
where patients and physicians can connect without the possibility of
a breach by activating defenses and updating security measures
more frequently.
References:
Prompt 1
About telemedicine. Washington, DC: American Telemedicine
Association. 2018. Retrieved
from http://www.americantelemed.org/main/about/about-
telemedicine/telemedicine-faqs. opens in new tab
.
Telemedicine: The good, the bad, the pleasantly surprising. AAFP Home.
(2020, April 14). Retrieved from
https://www.aafp.org/news/blogs/freshperspectives/entry/202004
14fp-covidtelemedicine.html
Liu, X., Zhu, M., Zhang, R. et al. Public mental health problems during
COVID-19 pandemic: a large-scale meta-analysis of the
evidence. Transl Psychiatry 11,384
(2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01501-9
Prompt 2
How information technology impacts patient safety. USF Health Online.
(2021, November 16). Retrieved from
https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/health-informatics/imp
act-of-information-technology-on-patient-safety/
