So, Here's another technical post, this time about something called the Continuity of Care Record. This is a handy standard created by the Massachusetts Medical Society that can be used to transfer data known about a patient from (ideally) any place to another and have both places know all they need to about the patient.
As you might guess, this is stored in XML, which makes getting data out in and out of it quite easy. CCRs are accessed predominantly from Electronic Health Records (EHR), which is a bit of a problem as American Hospitals and health care practices are loath to start picking EHR up. Back in 2005, the number of EHR systems in use was at the mind blowing large total of 12%. With the total of U.S registered hospitals at 5,739, this means that roughly only 690 hospitals were using a system similar to this, and all others were only using paper records. The medical profession sure likes to stick to the old ways. But enough of a digression, why is the CCR useful?
Because it measures all medical results, medications taken, current problems and the functional status the patient has, and all family and social history needed to be known about the patient. This can be potentially life-saving if received during an emergency procedure. For instance, the alerts data field stores all allergies that the patient has, including all drug related allergies. As I myself am allergic to penicillin, and have to tell people all the time, I can understand how useful this is.
I could go through all the details of the CCR, but you're better off going here. Of course, it wouldn't be a standard if there wasn't other competing standards, the newest of which being the CCD. Luckily this new system seems to work well with the CCR, as this post proves. It seems that most small physicians use the CCR, and most Hospitals use the CCD, due to CCD being more usable with old EHRs.
Well, that's enough about CCR and the background behind it for the moment, I'll go into more detail about it when I start working on it. Right now, it looks like the Medication Data Type has all you're ever need to know about medication.
Meanwhile:
Currently Watching: Mighty Boosh.
Currently Listening to: Gnarls Barkley "The Odd Couple"
