Here is a summary of some reasons why electronic medical records are an essential next step for the health care industry.

1. With EMRs, people won’t need to make a trip to their primary care physician every time they need to reorder a prescription. They will simply be able to email their doctor. This is not only great news for patients; it will allow doctors the ability to serve more patients and use their time more efficiently.
2. Online personal health records allow patients to track their own medical information much more readily than getting information supplied by their doctors. Pretty soon, patients will be able to access their own health records online and download test results, immunizations and other information.
3. Speaking of test results, EMRs will eventually eliminate the need to drag x-ray films from one doctors’ office to another. Pretty soon, it will be possible to view test results online and incorporate them directly into a patient’s electronic record.
4. With so many people in this country taking a handful of different prescription drugs every day, it is amazing there are not more problems with drug interactions, dosages and side effects. When patients are able to centralize all their medical records – and prescriptions – into one online record, drug interactions and side effects will be flagged automatically.
5. When most people think of online medical records, they expect to view them on a PC or laptop, but it won’t be long before they can be viewed on a cell phone.

Electronic medical records are designed to comply with all the HIPAA privacy laws and be securely encrypted. This is actually a lot more security than what is currently in place for the storage of paper records, which can easily be photocopied or stolen from a doctors’ office.

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