What Is Health Information Technology? (2)

Potential Drawbacks to Health IT

Clearly, Health IT has great potential to revolutionize health care. But there are some negatives to establishing this type of national database.

The biggest obstacle to making Health IT a reality is the cost. Even though it has been shown that Health IT could save billions in the long run, there are significant up-front costs. Doctor’s offices and hospitals would have to purchase or upgrade their computer systems to allow for storage of electronic medical records. It would take a significant amount of time and manpower to scan in or manually enter currently existing paper records into the database. Also, medical professionals would have to go through an education process and alter some of their current practice methods to accommodate the new system. This would take time, and time is money.

Another potential drawback to Health IT is patient medical record security. Many consumer groups, including the ACLU, are concerned that maintaining these private records electronically would make it easier for unauthorized persons (i.e. hackers) to access it. As a technophile, I personally don’t think that electronic medical records are any less safe than the paper records kept in my doctors’ offices – if someone really, really wants to find my blood pressure, they’ll find it regardless of what format my records are kept in. Nevertheless, I hope that Health IT system developers do take the ACLU’s concerns to heart and use every possible data security measure to protect patient privacy. I believe that electronic medical records can be safe, but only if we do everything we can to protect them.

In conclusion, Health IT looks very promising. If such a system could be adopted, it could improve the efficiency and quality of health care, reduce health care costs, and completely change the way our health care system works. Overall, the potential benefits outweigh the possible drawbacks.