Research Experience Statement

Research Experience Statement

Table of Contents

I have been interested in electronic medical records as used in health care facilities.  Specifically, I have interests in data confidentiality and privacy.  I researched on the development and the emergence of technology in the health care industry. I also examined how the industry has adopted various technologies with the aim of improving their efficiency and quality of service offered. I reviewed various scholarly data and research studies and realized that the availability of health records on electronic devices has positively impacted the industry.  It has improved the quality and efficiency of health care professionals. However, I realized that use of technology for patient records brings about issues of privacy and confidentiality.  In college, my course work assignment involved a review of electronic medical records.


The purpose of the coursework was to review what EMR entails and how it functions within the organization.  The coursework also involved looking at the differences between paper-based records versus computer based records.  The study brought to light the preferences of paper based over computer based records in health care organization. However, I discovered that problems such as lack of storage facilities and the risk of errors due to illegible handwriting made paper records unreliable.  Reviewing the differences between paper based, and computer based records enabled me to have strong background knowledge of EMR


Currently, I am researching about electronic medical records. This time the emphasis is on privacy and confidentiality. The basis of the research is on the knowledge that patients expect that their medical information remains confidential and only accessible by authorized personnel. The risk of privacy breach while using electronic medical records is high. I began the research by reviewing the overall, purpose of electronic medical records: to improve accessibility of medical records to authorized health professionals.  The rationale of the research is to determine the extent of fear of loss of privacy and confidentiality are justified. I am currently writing this research with the guidance of my supervisor. The emphasis of the research is to weigh the advantage of accessibility that EMR brings to the health care industry versus the risk of security breach. Like any other technology, EMR can easily be tampered with resulting to exposure of confidential information (Harman, 2001).


However, I am focusing my research on the existing security policy in health care. The health care industry lacks an elaborate security policy that guarantees information security. My emphasis in the research is to determine a security policy that will balance the functional and security requirements of EMR.  In health care organization, the risk of security and confidentiality breach lies mainly within the organization (Barrows, & Clayton, 2012). My research thus focuses on establishing frameworks that will ascertain that the threat of internal security breach ceases.  I have visited various health care organizations that utilize EMR and reviewed the reliability of EMR in terms of security.  I expect to make findings related to user authentication and access control. I expect to bring the need for EMR systems to have passwords. Only a few authorized personnel can access the medical records. This strategy will minimize accessibility of patient’s records by unauthorized individuals.  I also expect to show the need to adopt cryptography in health care institutions. The use of cryptography will be determined by the experience that the health facility will have towards its use.


Reference

Barrows, R. & Clayton, P. (2012). Privacy, confidentiality and EMR. Journal of the American medical informatics association. Vol. 3(2)

Harman, L. (2001). Ethical challenges in the management of health information. Jones & Bartlett learning





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