Program: Malaysia Summer 2015
SmartCare is a mobile personal health record application that ensures data accessibility and security. Through this application, we aim to allow medical data to be accessed anytime and anywhere by authorized users of the application. Additionally, we aim to reduce the occurrences of medical errors and provide a real time monitoring system for doctors. The target users of this application are patients who needs constant engagement with their medical provider, travelers who wants to keep in touch with their medical records wherever they go, parents who wants to keep their family health records and eventually anyone who wishes to monitor and manage their own health records. These users will be able to update their information in this application and have control of who is authorized to view their information.
In 2014, over 50, 000 people were killed due to medical errors in the US alone and it is estimated that the number of deaths due to medical errors is ten times more worldwide. Inaccuracies in medical records, miscommunication between patients and doctors and mistakes with prescriptions given to patients all contribute to this deaths. A lot of these mishaps occur as a result of how notes on patients’ records are recorded. Since the notes are handwritten, the officers that deal with those records often misread doctors’ notes, thus resulting in medical errors. Medical errors aside, these paper-based medical records are always at risk of being destroyed or lost in the aftermaths of natural disasters. One example involves the recent floods that occurred on the East Coast of Malaysia. Many medical establishments such as clinics and hospitals were damaged resulting in medical records also being destroyed.
Another issue with the current system is that the current process of retrieving medical records is often tedious and time-consuming. This is because the medical records are kept by health care institutions and patients or their family members need to apply to retrieve the records. This is problematic in cases where the records need to be accessed instantaneously during emergencies. As a result, whenever a patient is admitted to a new hospital, a new record is written and any previous treatments and prescriptions are recorded based on what the patient provides, hence resulting in inaccurate data; this process also causes a patient to own multiple medical records. Other than these above issues, doctors do not have the means to monitor a patient’s progress when the patient is outside the premises of the health care institution. As a result, it is challenging for the doctors to track and analyse the patient’s progress and performance with the given prescriptions.
We are determined to solve the above problems by digitizing the medical records and adds mobility to the system. SmartCare is a mobile personal health record application that ensures data accessibility and security. Through this application, we aim to allow medical data to be accessed anytime and anywhere by authorized users of the application. Additionally, we aim to reduce the occurrences of medical errors and provide a real time monitoring system for doctors. The target users of this application are patients who needs constant engagement with their medical provider, travelers who wants to keep in touch with their medical records wherever they go, parents who wants to keep their family health records and eventually anyone who wishes to monitor and manage their own health records. These users will be able to update their information in this application and have control of who is authorized to view their information.
