Many governments across the globe are making efforts of conversion to electronic health records from their paper health records, and this comes with a number of benefits including easier access to nutritional data and personal health. This is an invaluable resource for nutritionists and dietitians who are seeking to offer preventive health care.
Benefits of including nutritional data
Nutrition informatics is the effectual organization, retrieval, storage, and optimal use of data and information and the understanding of food and nutrition related health problems, decision-making, and problem solving. The records are helpful in that they give nutritionists complete and accurate records, which eliminate the need to depend on a patients recollection often based on their memory and flawed.
The new focus on health information technology has allowed nutritionists the chance to use it ensuring that nutritional informatics, counseling and patient education, and nutrition related care become a part of patient recovery and investment. The economic stimulus packages are actually offering incentives to hospitals and physicians who implement this system in their health records.
It is possible to influence government policy makers, including health care providers and vendors, ensuring they give competent PHR’s and EHR’s, which record crucial nutritional information, are related data. Registered nutritionists and dietitians can become involved in this process in a number of ways.
Other benefits
As with any other new technology and novice approach to doing things, electronic health records has its share of challenges and advantages as well. However, the advantages outweigh the challenges; these include better documentation where doctors are sometimes responsible for inaccurate data because of their handwriting, or the use of third parties in recording data. EHR eliminates this challenge making it a problem in the archives.
This also comes with lower costs, typically reducing health care costs in the end, and promoting of evidence based health care. This is because information is readily available and quickly and easily referred to prior to proceeding with the best treatment possible. This saves the clinics and patients resources because it reduces the patients’ sick days. It also comes with better storage and information retrieval, reduces malpractices in insurance premiums and billing, and results in overall enhanced medical care levels.