Shahid Akhter, editor of ETHealthworld, spoke with Dr. Saroj GuptaFounder, My digital records to discover their success in creating a platform that addresses the complex issues of traveling with digital records worldwide.
Health Records: Trends
Health care around the world is based on fragmented systems that leave people with huge blind spots in their health care. The result is billions of dollars in medical waste each year due to inefficiency, overtreatment, or poor coordination of care. While individual countries vary in terms of digital health sophistication, almost all recognize the importance of digitizing health records. For example, during the 2022 budget session, the Indian government introduced a digital health ecosystem under the Ayushman Bharat digital health mission (ABDM). There are multiple problems that must be solved in our health system; it’s a combination of problems, including a lack of easy access to health records and a lack of health literacy.
Health records are extremely important. While conversations about this paperless route to storing health records began long before the year 2000, of late, health records have begun to come into the spotlight. So what exactly do health records do for us? We’ve created so many silos that we’re not even sure if one system of record communicates with the other or not. And a lot of people are creating interoperability. What does that really mean? One system must be able to communicate with another. When I talk about systems, these are healthcare software systems where one system can communicate with the other. But when you go from one hospital to another and then to another hospital, doctors can’t see all of your health records collected from various places, all because we’ve created a lot of silos. To solve this problem, we need to figure out what we need to do and how we can solve it. Digitization must be introduced in such a way that people have access to their records, and when they go to the doctor, they should be able to access the medical records of all hospitals. Whether they are traveling anywhere in the world, they must have access to their records through easy digitization as they cannot carry papers or folders with them. Either they carry folders or they carry their clothes. Health Records: Challenges
So when we talk about keeping health records, they have always posed a challenge, both in the US and in India. In the US, all health records are the property of physicians and providers. Patients in the US do not have access to their medical records and must figure out how to access care as they move from hospital to hospital. In India, patients have all their health records in physical folders, some of them with no idea what they are holding. The folders have become so large and bulky that many times when patients go for consultations, they don’t even know if those folders contain all the necessary medical documents or if they may be missing some records. It gets complicated for them because they assume the doctor will be able to see all those folders when they visit. Also, they often lose those documents and doctors don’t have patient records. Doctors cannot even be expected to review that many documents as the workload is high and they have to see as many patients as they can anyway. This will not only ease the workload of doctors by allowing them easy access to health records, but it will also make it much easier for them to understand their conditions, leading to better health outcomes.My digital records
MyDigiRecords is a platform that allows users to integrate and manage their health records from various sources, including digitization of paper records, seamless extraction of digital health records from other sources, or manual entry of patient health information. user. It is capable of keeping records of all immunizations, as well as drug interactions, which can start as early as the prenatal stage. When we talk about prenatal, there are so many apps in the market that are downloaded by pregnant women during their pregnancy journey; however, after delivery, they tend to delete that app, thus losing all the data they entered. People receive notifications and reminders of recommended vaccinations based on government guidelines.
Through MyDigiRecords, we are trying to build a comprehensive narrative for children and their parents. The app will prove to be a game changer in terms of helping to keep all the data from the beginning of the pregnancy journey to capture all the details of childhood vaccinations and treatment all the way to adulthood. This can also help trace any genetic conditions in either parent and predict any health conditions the children may suffer from, so they can proactively take steps to take better care of their health before problems develop.
People will also be able to keep track of all their medications, including over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and even receive notifications of potential interactions and include alerts to curb overuse, all by leveraging AI. This will also help in contacting a doctor in time and will help doctors to better understand which drugs may be unsafe and map out treatment options accordingly. While a single sign may allow all family members to be added, their records cannot be accessed without their permission. Record security is our first priority and accordingly we make sure our systems are well protected. MyDigiRecords takes advantage of end-to-end encryption, multi-party authentication, and we are in strict compliance with the data protection regulations of each country in which we operate.
As an innovative health technology company, MyDigiRecords is committed to transforming the way people manage their health data, enabling them to make better informed decisions and improve health outcomes. We want to assist the government in their plans to move the country towards full digitization of health records to help drive better healthcare for the people of India. The MDR platform can have a positive impact on the Indian healthcare system by improving access to data, streamlining administrative processes and enabling better informed decision-making for healthcare providers and patients.
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