I know some think of it as a pain in the ass but there are others, Doctors and Nurses, who have switched from practicing to IT consulting because they truly feel they can help many more patients in the long run by getting us out of pen and paper mode.

Our generation will probably never have everything on the EMR because there is too much data floating around in files. But the younger generations will fully benefit from it. And it will reduce malpractice. Of course procedures would need to followed, like checking the computer, just as they need to be followed today.

In my example with your allergies listed on the EMR eventually all systems will be required to read that. If the doc, pharmacy, whomever enters a prescription that contains a drug, ingredient, etc that the patient is allergic to it will produce a big warning. The conflict checking that goes on behind the scene against the FDB is very complicated. How do I know? The code I wrote is being used right now in places like the Mayo clinic.

A lot of docs are now doing their rounds using hand helds like IPADS and in the future I bet even an EMT will have a hand held device linked to the EMR. For the unconscious maybe it will scan finger print or retina. An unconscious patient having a heart attack the EMT selects Epinephrine the screen might show "CRITICAL ALLERGY TO EPINEPHRINE!!!". Just saved a life. Or the scan may show what chronic condition or disease the patient suffers from. And of course it would show all of the prescribed meds the patient is taking. Way too many positives out way the negatives.

And all computer systems these days have redundencies built in for power outages or disaster recovery especially hospitals.

I remember when people complained about having to scan bar codes. In the medical world bar codes are not only time saving but life saving now.

The EMR will also be used to track diseases and such by population which won't be patient specific. Something like "Why is there a higher rate of Thyroid cancer in Seattle than other cities?" Or it can be used to track Mental and behavioural disorders by population and maybe solve our mass murderer problems.