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E-Mailed Prescriptions Medical Records Test Results etc.

Personally, I see no reason why our prescriptions, test results and other medical records can't be emailed to us on a routine basis as soon as these documents are created. Perhaps patients could 'opt-in' to this kind of service when they select a clinic or medical practice. If all these documents were emailed to me, I would have been in much better control of my sleep apnea and other medical conditions. But i imagine there's a lot of resistance to this idea, perhaps from doctors and patients alike. But why?

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We aren't smart enough, or so the perception of the medical community. The medical community has been networking, via streaming video, surgical procedures, conferences, consultations, etc, for years. Yet they continue to use one of the most insecure and corruptible methods to send prescriptions and other sensitive materials - the fax machine.

Any document that can be produced with a computer can be sent via email, or for that matter as a fax, directly from the pc. However, very few people or firms will take the time to alter the document, for security purposes, from the original format to a format which prohibits alteration. The sending of the document by email also saves money and reduces overhead costs.

The documents need to be converted to a pdf document to reduce the chance they are tampered with. The process takes no longer than it does to print the document.

In reality, it’s not the patient who is ill informed but the medical community. They tend to fight change to their procedures.
Dan, that's certainly my perception of things -- that the doctors are just in the stone ages when it comes to this. but what i can't get is why patients are so complacent about this -- why do we allow this to continue? It's madness!

Dan Lyons said:
We aren't smart enough, or so the perception of the medical community. The medical community has been networking, via streaming video, surgical procedures, conferences, consultations, etc, for years. Yet they continue to use one of the most insecure and corruptible methods to send prescriptions and other sensitive materials - the fax machine.

Any document that can be produced with a computer can be sent via email, or for that matter as a fax, directly from the pc. However, very few people or firms will take the time to alter the document, for security purposes, from the original format to a format which prohibits alteration. The sending of the document by email also saves money and reduces overhead costs.

The documents need to be converted to a pdf document to reduce the chance they are tampered with. The process takes no longer than it does to print the document.

In reality, it’s not the patient who is ill informed but the medical community. They tend to fight change to their procedures.
i believe that there might be some law against doing this before a consultation. The new lab I am working for is going paperless. With more and more labs doing this we might possibly see some changes due to electronic file keeping.
The excuse I've always heard is that e-mail is not "secure". But where is a FAX "more" secure than e-mail? I'm not a "techie" by any means so I fail to see any difference.

Heck, they allow my full radiology report (including dictated results) to be provided to an outside coding/billing service. They allow my dictated results to go to an outside transcription service. And those two types of records HAVE to have my full identity and insurance information on them.
My attitude is that as the patient, it is my security that they are supposedly fretting over, so let me opt-in/opt-out of email. what's wrong with that?

Judy said:
The excuse I've always heard is that e-mail is not "secure". But where is a FAX "more" secure than e-mail? I'm not a "techie" by any means so I fail to see any difference.

Heck, they allow my full radiology report (including dictated results) to be provided to an outside coding/billing service. They allow my dictated results to go to an outside transcription service. And those two types of records HAVE to have my full identity and insurance information on them.

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