By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    physical health
    5 Ways Playing Games Can Improve Neural and Physical Health
    September 9, 2022
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    February 16, 2022
    healthcare organization
    5 Actionable Strategies For Healthcare Organizations
    August 15, 2022
    Latest News
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
    The Hidden Impact Of Stress On Your Body’s Alignment And Balance
    May 22, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    5 Public Health Crises Other Than COVID-19 That Still Exist
    March 10, 2025
    ACA
    Obamacare Won’t Cause Fast Food Shortage
    May 18, 2013
    Vaccine Financing: Assessing Progress and Envisioning Future Directions
    September 12, 2017
    Latest News
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
    Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
    June 25, 2025
    When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
    June 20, 2025
    Preventing Contamination In Healthcare Facilities Starts With Hygiene
    June 15, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Who Needs a Patient Relationship When You Have an EHR?
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Medical Records > Who Needs a Patient Relationship When You Have an EHR?
eHealthMedical RecordsTechnology

Who Needs a Patient Relationship When You Have an EHR?

Danny Lieberman
Danny Lieberman
Share
4 Min Read
Image
SHARE

ImageThe patient is just getting in the way anyhow, right?

Is the American obsession with EHR technologies a flagpost for improved patient relationship management for doctors and better medicine for patients? Or is it a convenient distraction from more fundamental healthcare issues?

Why should doctors trade-up to the latest EHR in the cloud application?

ImageThe patient is just getting in the way anyhow, right?

More Read

Google Health is Dead – What Did We Learn About PHRs?
Social Media Revolution 2011- Video
HIPAA Compliance Concerns with Google
Helping Patients Quantify Their Health Data: The Quantified Self Movement
Health And Fitness Apps: Know The Untold Benefits

Is the American obsession with EHR technologies a flagpost for improved patient relationship management for doctors and better medicine for patients? Or is it a convenient distraction from more fundamental healthcare issues?

Why should doctors trade-up to the latest EHR in the cloud application?

EHR in the cloud or on your tablet is a productivity and patient-relationship management tool just like CRM for sales people. That sounds like a reasonable claim, right?

Better data and more accessible data helps save time and improve quality of diagnosis. Not fiddling with IT and running an application in the cloud should save time.

But, hold on a second. We’ve now shifted the discussion from people to technologies. It’s all too easy to cross the line from people to systems.

As any programmer will tell you, data trumps human relationships any day of the week. Data transactions don’t talk back. They don’t mumble or smell bad or look disgusting. They don’t have annoying family members and insufferable caregivers. They don’t present you with problems that require cross-cultural understanding.

EHR systems don’t require you to listen to patients in a mindful, empathetic way.

With  the amount of legal exposure that doctors face and with heavy workloads and long hours, perhaps it’s best to limit the human relationship in favor of data transactions where a doctor can document what they did and mitigate liability when adverse events happen.

Are patient relationship management systems a  sine-qua-non for better health?

We can benchmark the efficacy of patient relationship management systems in terms of 3 kinds of addictions: technology addiction, information addiction and media addiction.

Technology addiction

Over 700 US software companies have certified their EHR systems for meaningful use. The notion of meaningful use can transform into doctors leaning forward to their PC monitor, concentrating on data entry during a patient visit. This is a disturbing indicator of technology addiction that is not necessarily to the benefit of improved patient care.

Information addiction

There is a fundamental difference between data flow and human interaction. With limitations on physician time, it is important to throttle the amount of DATA flowing between physician and patient and have a strong trustful patient-doctor relationship. However, limiting (as insurance companies would prefer) the human patient-doctor relationship in favor of digital transactions will do nothing to improve care and patient trust.

Media addiction

Don’t believe everything you read online. I imagine that most people buy into the idea that EHR and online access to EHR improves health. However, a recent (late 2012) article in JAMA reporting on a clinical study indicates that more online data sharing between doctors does not improve health of patients. As the study shows, the notion that online access to health records improves health is not supported by the empirical data.

It’s easy to justify a trade up of paper records to electronic data capture on the basis of improved productivity and accessibility to historical patient records. It’s less easy to implement an EHR system (as most doctors worldwide will attest) and less clear that placing a greater emphasis on technology will improve our health.

image: EHR/shutterstock

TAGGED:EHRs
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

car accident lawsuit
Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
Policy & Law
July 6, 2025
women dental care
What Is a Smile Makeover and How Much Does It Cost?
Dental health
June 30, 2025
HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps
Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
June 25, 2025
recovering from injury
Rebuilding After Injury: Path to Physical and Emotional Recovery
News
June 22, 2025

You Might also Like

Using Open Source Software in Safety-Critical Medical Devices

September 6, 2011
BusinessTechnology

Leveraging Digital Signage for Patient Education,Marketing and Service Improvement

December 21, 2012
Medical InnovationsTechnology

5 Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Healthcare

May 17, 2019
Image
Mobile Health

Mobile Health Around the Globe: Ruchi Dass and mHealth India Plans 2012 Part II-Exclusive Interview With Dr Ruchi Dass

May 29, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?