EMRs in Denmark
He clipped an electronic pulse reader to his finger. It logged his reading and sent it to his doctor. Mr. Danstrup can also look up his personal health record online. His prescriptions are paperless — his doctor enters them electronically, and any pharmacy in the country can pull them up. Any time he wants to get in touch with his primary care doctor, he sends an e-mail message.
All of this is possible because Mr. Danstrup lives in Denmark, a country that began embracing electronic health records and other health care information technology a decade ago.
Full article on digital care in Denmark.
Do these systems really work. or is this just a NYT puff piece on Denmark?
I’m suspicious.
This article lacks two things: 1) a discussion of the cost and clinical significance of the innovations discussed and 2) any comparison with existing US systems.
For example, a lot of US emergency services already send EKG readings directly from ambulances to hospital ERs. The ER doc might also want to know what drugs the patient is on, but he can’t necessarily rely on a medical record for that because a lot of people don’t take the drugs they are prescribed or are taking drugs that don’t appear on their medical records.
This is a lot like the campaign to put blood types on drivers’ licenses–which sounded good until people realized that no one is going to give a transfusion that could kill someone without verifying that the blood type on the license is correct. What if the license was a fake or had an incorrect blood type entered?
There have been limited studies comparing telemonitoring with existing self-monitoring for heart failure patients. Their results mostly suggest that more study is needed given the high costs of telemonitoring and the relatively low cost of simple self-monitoring diaries and telephone interventions.
Thanks, Linda. I always learn something from your posts.