MedGenMed : Medscape general medicine
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Comparative Study
Consumers are ready to accept the transition to online and electronic records if they can be assured of the security measures.
Healthcare has entered the electronic domain. This domain has improved data collection and storage abilities while allowing almost instantaneous access and results to data queries. Furthermore, it allows direct communication between healthcare providers and health consumers. The development of privacy, confidentiality, and security principles are necessary to protect consumers' interests against inappropriate access. Studies have shown that the health consumer is the important stakeholder in this process. With the international push toward electronic health records (EHRs), this article presents the importance of secure EHR systems from the public's perspective. ⋯ The findings showed that for the EHR to be fully integrating in the health sector, there are 2 main issues that need to be addressed: The security of the EHR system has to be of the highest level, and needs to be constantly monitored and updated. The involvement of the health consumer in the ownership and maintenance of their health record needs to be more proactive. The EHR aims to collect information to allow for "cradle to the grave" treatment; thus, the health consumer has to be seen as a major player in ensuring that this can happen correctly. The results from this study indicated that the consumer is ready to accept the transition, as long as one can be assured of the security of the system.
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The ritual of taking an oath upon graduating from medical school is, with a few exceptions, a routine requirement for graduation. Albeit that many students believe that they have taken the Hippocratic Oath, this is virtually never the case. Very often students themselves write many of these oaths, and taking such an oath impresses the student as well as the public, who are potential patients. ⋯ This becomes impossible when uninsured patients are sent away at the front desk long before the physician can interact with them. Furthermore, the current fact that physicians often are confronted with not doing what they consider a necessary test (or prescribe what they think would be the best medication) raises the problem of either lying or suggesting to the patient that he/she do so--a fact that in the long run cannot help but damage the physician's veracity and the trust which patients put in their physicians. That virtually all codes of the American Medical Association (AMA) as well as the various specialties insist that physicians work toward universal access is stressed.
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Consumer-directed health information resources hold great potential for improving public health and easing the demand on health systems. Their value, however, depends largely on the ability of their intended users to access and use them effectively. Little is known about whether British Columbia's ethnocultural communities are using the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Health's BC HealthGuide (BCHG) program, and if so, when and for what purposes they use the services, as well as level of satisfaction with and users' perceptions of the resources. This study investigated attitudes toward and perceptions of the BCHG program, as well as use patterns and satisfaction levels, within the Iranian community of the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA)--among BC's largest and fastest-growing Middle Eastern immigrant communities--and explored a model for introducing the BCHG program to ethnic communities in the GVA and BC. ⋯ The findings of this study strongly suggest that Iranians living in the GVA are open to alternatives to routine healthcare services, including the use of preventive and self-care resources. However, awareness levels and utilization rates of the BCHG program among the GVA's Iranian immigrant population have until now been low. The noticeable and sustained improvement to attitudes, perceptions, and self-reported utilization rates of the BCHG program among Iranian participants in this study after watching culturally appropriate promotional videos indicates the potential to modify cultural beliefs in regard to the delivery of preventive health information if the relevant messages are delivered appropriately. By carefully considering the demographic and cultural characteristics of the various ethnic communities living in BC, and by targeting promotional activities and services directly to these individual communities, the BCHG program could improve awareness and utilization rates within these communities.
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The purpose of this article is to discuss an evidence-based algorithm that can be implemented by the primary care physician in his/her daily clinical practice for the treatment of patients with neuropathic pain conditions. ⋯ Patients presenting with neuropathic pain are becoming a more frequent occurrence for the primary care physician as the population ages. Evidence-based treatment options allow for the most efficient and effective pharmacotherapy regimen to be implemented.