Assessment of My Health Record: Problems, Capabilities, Benefits

This report provides an assessment of a health record system, likely the My Health Record (MHR), discussing its associated problems, capabilities, and benefits. The identified problems include the high implementation costs, the need for user training, the challenges in data updating, and security concerns regarding data storage. Despite these issues, the report emphasizes the system's capabilities, such as e-documentation, data security through encryption and authentication, and the ability to manage and access data from diverse locations. The benefits highlighted are ease in medical processes, improved patient care, efficient expert-patient communication, and cost savings for both healthcare units and patients. The report references several studies supporting the discussion and concludes with an overall positive view of the health record system, emphasizing its multiple benefits.

Running head: ASSESSMENT OF MY HEALTH RECORD
ASSESSMENT OF MY HEALTH RECORD
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Problems:
My health record (MHR) was developed to assist the patients and the healthcare
industry, and it is successful in achieving the targets. However, the system is not perfect and
has problems associated with it. Out of the many problems associated with the technology,
one of the most concerning is the implementation and skills to operate the system. The reason
behind the above-made statement lies on the fact that the implementation of the system is
costly and requires additional expenses in training and providing the training resources to the
stakeholders (McAlearney et al., 2015). The training is provided to make the stakeholders
comfortable and aware of the systems operations and uses. Additionally, maintaining the
system also demands expertise which the healthcare units have to hire to maintain their
servers and systems.
Another problem that is associated with the MHR technology is the difficulties that
the healthcare experts face in updating the data of the patient regularly. The people who are
not comfortable with the technology also finds organising the data according to the priority a
difficult task. The older patients also prefer the traditional method of their medical records
because they feel comfortable with it. Other people think that the data is stored on the internet
which makes the technology insecure and vulnerable to cyber-attacks (Dinev et al., 2016).
Hence, in conclusion, it can be stated that no real problem is associated with the system
except for the perception towards it. The problem with the implementation cost can also be
ignored if the systems long-term benefits are measured.
Capabilities:
The discussed technology was designed to assist in the medical industry, and it is
fulfilling its objective. The capabilities of the technology are vast, and one of the most
significant of them is the e-documentation. E-documentation refers to maintaining

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individual’s health record including the past and present condition electronically (Walsh et
al., 2017). The documents are made available online to omit the hassle of carrying the
documents and worrying about their safekeeping. The documents stored electronically can
also be shared with healthcare units and experts in dire situation electronically with proper
authentication. As discussed in the problems, one of the biggest challenges to the deemed
system is the perception of the people that the system is insecure is a myth. The reason for the
above-stated statement is that the data uploaded on the servers are kept encrypted, and
appropriate authentication are provided to keep it protected from the trespassers.
Additionally, a unique identification is provided to the users to enhance the security even
further. The system stores data electronically which offers it the capability of managing and
accessing the data from geographically diverse location. The system is also capable of
enhancing the capabilities of the experts and the healthcare units. The experts and the
healthcare units can test and evaluate new technologies and method in the deemed platform
("eHealth Reference Platform - Australian Digital Health Agency", 2018). The system is also
capable of assisting the healthcare units in managing the inventory and offer notification
when needed.
Benefits:
The deemed system’s capability has been discussed in the above section which can be
evaluated to determine the benefits of the system. On evaluation, it is evident that the system
offers ease in the medical process. Hence, it can be stated that the system reduces the hassle
in expert and patient communication and even enhances the caring of the patients which can
be of great assistance for the people with disability and seniors (Hemsley et al., 2016). One of
the capabilities of the deemed system is that it offers notification to the experts which helps
the experts to cite proper attention towards the patient. The documentation part is also
simplified which also preserves the expert’s time which he/she can use in caring for the

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patients. It is evident from the discussion above that the deemed technology is costly.
However, it is partially correct as after the implementation the system saves a lot of money.
For the healthcare units, the capital is preserved inventory management and testing of new
systems and techniques which they can perform with assistance from the system. While the
patients are financially benefitted by omitting the mailing costs and the transportation cost
that the patients incur in visiting the healthcare units. The system is capable of assisting in
large geographical domain which offers the benefits of assisting in the dire situation (Turvey
et al., 2014). In case, the expert is not physically available to the patient due to geographical
distance then the former can offer medical advice or even refer the latter to another suitable
expert. Hence, it can be stated that the deemed system provides multiple benefits which
should be entertained by everyone.

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References:
Dinev, T., Albano, V., Xu, H., D’Atri, A., & Hart, P. (2016). Individuals’ attitudes towards
electronic health records: A privacy calculus perspective. In Advances in healthcare
informatics and analytics (pp. 19-50). Springer, Cham.
eHealth Reference Platform - Australian Digital Health Agency.
(2018). Digitalhealth.gov.au. Retrieved 11 March 2018, from
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/get-started-with-digital-health/what-is-digital-
health/features-of-the-my-health-record-system/ehealth-reference-platform
Hemsley, B., Georgiou, A., Carter, R., Hill, S., Higgins, I., van Vliet, P., & Balandin, S.
(2016). Use of the My Health Record by people with communication disability in
Australia: A review to inform the design and direction of future research. Health
Information Management Journal, 45(3), 107-115.
McAlearney, A. S., Hefner, J. L., Sieck, C. J., & Huerta, T. R. (2015). The journey through
grief: insights from a qualitative study of electronic health record
implementation. Health services research, 50(2), 462-488.
Turvey, C., Klein, D., Fix, G., Hogan, T. P., Woods, S., Simon, S. R., ... & Wakefield, B.
(2014). Blue Button use by patients to access and share health record information
using the Department of Veterans Affairs' online patient portal. Journal of the
American Medical Informatics Association, 21(4), 657-663.
Walsh, L., Hemsley, B., Allan, M., Adams, N., Balandin, S., Georgiou, A., ... & Hill, S.
(2017). The E-health Literacy Demands of Australia's My Health Record: A Heuristic
Evaluation of Usability. Perspectives in health information management, 14(Fall).