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Dr. Joseph J. Salvo attended Phillips Andover Academy, received his A.B. degree from Harvard University and his Master and Ph.D. degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. Dr. Salvo joined the GE Global Research Center in 1988. His early work focused on the development of genetically modified bacteria and fungus, for the production of novel high performance polymers. In the mid 1990's he turned his group's efforts towards developing large-scale internet-based sensing arrays to manage and oversee
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In 1997, he joined the Visualization and Computer Vision Group at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY. He has developed algorithms for the FBI Automatic Fingerprint Identification System. He is the principle investigator for the ReFace program, which has the goal of automatically computing the appearance of a person’s face from skeletal remains. Dr. Tu has also developed a number of algorithms for the precise measurement of specular and high curvature objects. His current focus is the development of intelligent video algorithms for surveillance applications.
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Have digitized medical records changed your experience of managed health care? How?
Tell us below in the comments!
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Comments
In my case - the digitized record's effect is negative. It used to be no problem to get my primary doc to send me full copy of my annual lab reports. Nowadays it all comes in digital format, and all they send out it's a "you're all good" notice, without the detailed results to track. They are available if you call, but they don't have a good way to actually print a summary of results anymore.
Posted by: Mu | March 4, 2010 11:41 AM | Reply
No.
Posted by: Jackal | March 4, 2010 12:26 PM | Reply
I have seen no improvement due to digitized medical records. The main effect i have seen is to be required to sign a form everywhere I go that states that I understand the privacy laws.
I asked at my doctor's office about what happens to all the lab results and the scans (EKG's, stress tests, etc.) and was told that they are all sent to the doctor's PC in his office and he sits down at the end of each day and reviews them all. This takes the digitization right back to square one. Where are all the software programs? Where are all the meta-data analyses?
Lets talk about the oxymoron "managed health care".
Posted by: NewEnglandBob | March 4, 2010 1:20 PM | Reply
HIPA first, then Digital Tyranny have so excluded the patient that he can`t even look at his own records. The last person to see CBCs, CXRs, and other related films of ones self, is the the patient.
The answer was lock up the criminal who used medical records for malice and not blind the patient and gag the doctors and nurses. Hiding the info in cyberspace impedes Patient self-care and knowledge of ones self.
When a loved one becomes ill, and needs the help of family members, both for economic and medical decisions, guess who the absolute last person is to see pertinent data.
Medical records falls right in with the other needs for REAL health care reform.
Posted by: Rodney | March 4, 2010 1:57 PM | Reply
Yes, they've benefited me.
Digitized records means that I can have access to many (though admittedly not all) of my own records online, at any time, from anywhere that has internet access. I can sift through my own blood chemistry levels, and find out what medications & doses I was on at any given time. I use them pretty frequently to remind me of upcoming renewal dates for vaccinations and other procedures that need to be repeated. I can also see my doctor's notes, although I'm sure I don't see all of her notes - it's still helpful.
Because my provider offers this personal online access, digitized records have given me a bit more control over my own health care.
Posted by: GeneQueen | March 4, 2010 2:12 PM | Reply
There are doctors/nurses/et al using digitized records? None of my doctors yet...
Posted by: deselby | March 4, 2010 2:56 PM | Reply
Well, I did get a tetanus shot this week because my workplace has an electronic immunization record in which up to date items are marked as green and overdue items are red - I saw the red, and went to get my shot. And I usually see my own labs before I ever get a letter in the mail, which puts me at ease earlier than before. So on my end, these are small conveniences. I like to think that all of my inpatient/outpatient providers (assuming I stay in the workplace system) being able to see one central record for all of my care is useful to my care in some way, although I don't have any concrete examples of how that has been the case.
Posted by: RachelW | March 4, 2010 4:49 PM | Reply
Nope, haven't seen a thing change. But then again, I'm only 20. The push to digitize records started some time ago (when I wasn't cognizant of the world), so that now that I am, I can't notice a change. I have nothing to compare today's record to yesterdays.
Posted by: Lyle | March 4, 2010 7:09 PM | Reply
I haven't noticed much difference, but I am infrequently involved with any sort of healthcare.
Posted by: SouthernFriedSkeptic | March 4, 2010 9:01 PM | Reply
well i'm 64 and i get just about all my care at the local Veterans Hospital,a "flagship" hospital i'm told.i always had private insurance but seldom used it.so at the VA i saw the health record go from a paper folder with lots of paper forms for the Dr. to fill in and a clerk to act on after my appointment,x-rays,blood tests,so on to a computer file that the Dr.see's and fills out orders while he chats with me.he can view x-rays right on the screen and can look at hem in more depth than that light box they once used.so i feel the system is faster and really more secure because a paper folder on a shelf could be seen by anyone,like a night janitor.with the new system access is only granted in the area you are working in so a clerk can only see and do "clerk stuff".so i feel it's faster and more secure with less chance for mistakes.
Posted by: scidog | March 4, 2010 10:48 PM | Reply
Digitized records have helped my medical care in an obvious way and two less obvious ways.
The obvious way: My doctor works in a large clinic. If I need care without overmuch delay while she is away, or on a day when she does not work, it is comparatively trivial for her colleague, who I am visiting on a one-off basis, to get access to everything without having to decipher handwritten notes on this or that sheet of paper. Once, the doctor covering for my doctor had a question; he called her and e-mailed a page from my record to her cell phone (with my explicit permission) while I watched. That way I did not have to leave and make another whole appointment.
The first not-so-obvious way concerned a diagnosis I received incidental to treatment for a sprained ankle while on a business trip to Dubai. The doctor who saw me in Dubai had kept my record in her computer and could e-mail it to my home doctor in seconds. This saved me paying for unmecessary duplicate bloodwork that my insurance would not have agreed to cover.
The second less obvious way... well, I work in IT user support for a living. Nearly every time I see my doctor, I troubleshoot some computer issue for her. Nothing like collegial respect from your doctor to bolster your credibility with her.
Posted by: speedwell | March 4, 2010 11:27 PM | Reply
Not much benefit, from my (patient's) point of view. But from my doctors' staffs position, it has afforded several convenient, paperless new ways for them to lose, misplace, discard, erase, and otherwise make unavailable the various records of at least one patient...
Posted by: nancy brownlee | March 5, 2010 10:52 AM | Reply
Digital x-rays are wooonderful for children's sake. Got a squirmy, sick kid who needs an x-ray? They point, shoot, and get the results in a minute, so if there's a need for additional shots, *boom*, kid's there, they take another shot, and you're out the door. And the x-rays get to the doc right away, so that by the time you're back at the doc's office, the doc can say "pneumonia" or "not pneumonia" when you walk in the room.
Digital records seem to have speeded things up at my doc's end a bit, too. The doc can see trendlines--weight, blood pressure, etc.--which is pretty neat. Also, electronic prescriptions faxed to the pharmacy are G.R.E.A.T.
Posted by: OmegaMom | March 5, 2010 3:48 PM | Reply
Unfortunately, no, because entrenched hospital bureaucracy and lack of digital access prevented it. Digital does no good if there is not also remote access 24x7x366 by some secure means.
My house-mate broke his leg and was initially treated in the emergency department of the resort town. Those records, especially the x-rays of interest, were digital.
In order for the surgeon who was do the final repair to get access to those records, including the x-ray of the leg, my house-mate or an authorized representative would have to show up at the hospital during regular business hours, sign forms requesting them, and get one or more CD-ROMs with the records at some unspecified time later - I believe they were mailed. Or send a notarized letter and have the CD-ROMs mailed.
Posted by: Tsu Dho Nimh | March 6, 2010 5:45 AM | Reply
I'm a doctor. None of my past personal written medical records make sense as individual documents or as a series of documents. If digitized records become the norm, perhaps this will force better thinking as well as documentation.
Posted by: @murmur55 twitter | March 6, 2010 3:18 PM | Reply