|
|
|
Computer
Personalized Medical Treatment |
| |
Personalizing Medical
Treatment – By Computer
Other Topics:
Medical Informatics Management
Solutions, Regenerative
Medicine,
Cancer Genome Atlas,
Web-based Drug Withdrawal Warnings
EMAILWIRE.COM
October 9, 2006
Rohnert Park, CA -- When Dr Peter Franklin sees a diabetic
patient at his primary care practice in Middlefield, Ohio, he
doesn’t have to remember the formidable list of checks that the
American Academy of Family Practitioners recommends for every
such visit. Or plow through an unwieldy chart containing
information about all the patient’s ailments.
Instead, with one click on his computer, a list of reminders
pops up giving him all the information about the individual
relevant to his diabetes. |
| |
|
|
| |
“The reminders
cover all the usual indicators for long-term follow up. They
tell me what he said when I last asked him if he was losing any
feeling in his feet or when he last had his eyes tested to see
if there was any diabetic damage. They remind me of the
medications he is taking and if he has any allergies. They alert
me to any new tests that are due.”
Franklin also has many patients with back pain. He has put into
his computer system all the dozens of tests that make up the
widely used Oswestry scoring system – lifting, standing,
sleeping and so on – so that the results for any individual
patient come up with just a single click while the consultation
is taking place.
The principle can be applied to any specialty, Franklin says.
“Just think of the long lists a rheumatologist needs to look at
to decide if a patient has what officially constitutes lupus or
rheumatoid arthritis or all the changing conditions a
gynecologist needs to keep track of. Computers make all that
much simpler.”
The most obvious advantage of these computerized methods,
Franklin says, is the amount of labor saved. “One doctor can do
everything a heavily staffed office can do – and probably better
because it is all in his own control.” He works alone, with just
a receptionist, seeing twenty patients a day. “That saves a
substantial amount of overhead,” he says.
“I could see more patients but I feel very comfortable spending
twenty minutes or so with those patients whose problems aren’t
too complicated. In most cases, that gives enough time to make
personal contact, deal with a couple of medical problems and
attend to services like making out referrals, writing
prescriptions and so on, all of which I do on the computer.”
Franklin’s working methods reflect what he sees as the
fundamental benefit of computerized note-making: improved
quality of care. “Most medicine today is what’s called snapshot
medicine. Time is so short and medicine so complex that you
address only the things that hit you in the face,” he says.
“But with an efficient electronic system, doctors not only can
spend more of their time face to face with patients – which is
what they are paid for – but easy access to what’s relevant in
the patient’s history makes it much more likely that nothing
important will be overlooked.”
The system Franklin has used since 1999, ChartWare, was designed
by Dr. Dan Essin, Director of Informatics at the Los Angeles
County-U.S.C. Medical Center, to enable all doctors to adapt it
to their individual way of working. “It took me just half an
hour to add the diabetic reminders to the standard program,”
Franklin reports.” |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
