Answer to Question #54526 in English for Rachel

Question

In your opinion, what technological advancements have revolutionized the face of medicine in the past five years? How did those advancements affect the pharmacy practice?

Answer 1

Answer on Question #54526, English / Other
1. PCP as “curator”
As patients have increasing access to information and data about their own health, Pho says physicians no longer will be the gatekeepers of medical information. Instead, he says, they must become “curators of information,” directing patients to the best apps and online sources of medical information
2. Personal health records
Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, demonstrates patients’ ever-growing interest in online access to their personal health information. Today, 65% of Kaiser’s eligible members have direct access to My Health Manager, its personal health record (PHR), via www.kp.org. Since 2008, the number of members registering for secure features on My Health Manager has climbed from 2.7 million to more than 4 million. In 2012, for example, patients viewed more than 32 million lab test results online, nearly double the usage in 2008.
3. Healthcare in the cloud
Client-servers continue to dominate the market, experts say. In 2011, 55% of office-based physicians were using EHRs, and 59% of them were using stand-alone systems, according to a July 2012 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
4. Support staff needs
Technology also is allowing many practices to redesign their workflows and staff functions. It could allow some staff members and doctors to work remotely from home.
5. Remote monitoring
New developments in mHealth are fueling the growth of home-based remote monitoring services, with roughly 2.8 million patients worldwide using connected medical devices to monitor everything from sleep apnea to blood pressure and medication adherence, according to Berg Insight.