My Health Record System: Benefits, Vendor Solutions, And System Development Life Cycle

The Importance of Health

Discuss about the Analysis of Developing My Health Record System.

The functioning of the human parts of the body is very critical. Health is simply concerned about the normal functioning of different parts of the human body such as the heart, kidney and the lungs. It is a state of being free from any form of destructions such as diseases, for example, tuberculosis, cancer and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) like syphilis and gonorrhea.  Apart from the normal functioning of the body, health can also involve mental and psychological factors such as emotions. These human emotions such as anger and sadness can result in stress, and afterwards, can lead to the development of depression which can jeopardize the lives of human beings (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).

It’s the responsibility and duties of any government to take care of its citizens. The health of the citizens is very essential because of the sacred nature of the human life. The following are some of the ways on which the state or the government can protect its citizens from any form of diseases or ailments; providing free medical care to its citizens, reducing the costs of the medicine at the hospitals and medical centers, guiding and counselling the public on the ways on which some of the deadly diseases such as cancer and Ebola can be controlled and managed, providing better salaries to the health care professionals, for example, the surgeons, doctors and nurses and establishing several health centers for accommodating many patients. For instance, the government of Australia has integrated my health record system in its medical centers that costed over 350 million dollars (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018).

According to the Digital Health Australia, distribution of the information and data was one of the core challenges that was encountered with the government, while implementing the technology in the medical operations. When patients are transferred from one medical center to the other, the details of the patient are very essential because the physician need to understand

the history of the patient before examination. The health care professionals like the doctors and nurses can treat their patients following the wrong procedure. This problem can be solved with the introduction to my health record system. Patients can detect some of the mistakes that are done by medical specialists because of being aware of the right procedure that should be followed. However, patients cannot be aware of all the terminologies and techniques that can be used by the health professionals while treating them, therefore, this can misguide not only the patients, but also the health care specialists like the surgeons.

The Role of the Government in Protecting Citizens’ Health

Inadequate data and information can prevent health care professionals from making correct deductions and conclusions about the conditions of their patients, and afterwards can lead to the extravagance of the resources of the medical centers such as medicine. Incorrect diagnosis can not only result in extravagance of resources, but also it can lead to the loss of hope of the patients towards the medical specialists like the nurses (The Conversation, 2018).

The core aim of developing my health record system was to store the information and details regarding to the conditions of the patients. Also, this system can keep the track of the patient’s conditions, alongside the entire processes in which the condition has developed from its original stage to its current stage. Hence, this system has enhanced the availability of the information about the patient (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018). The following are some of the capabilities of my health record system.

• Easy retrieval of the patient’s data and information.
• Easy accessibility to the medical data by physicians and the surgeons.
• Keeping the track of the patient’s data.
• Securing the data of the patient.

Benefits of my Health Record System

The rate of integrating my health record system in medical operations has increased rapidly especially in Australia (Digitalhealth.gov.au, 2018). This system has resulted in many benefits in the field of medicine. Some of the benefits include the following:

• Monitoring the developments in the patient’s conditions.
• Availability of the information regarding to the background of the patient’s conditions.
• Enhanced sharing of the diagnosis between different health centers.

Vendor Solution

There are three vendor solutions that can be used in this system namely: Procurify which is a cloud-based solution, 3PL warehouse manager which is also a cloud-based solution and QStrat solution that can be used for distribution of the products. The features of each vendor solution have been discussed below.

• Ability to manage the data of the company or an organization.
• Ability of developing new strategies that can be used in the company.
• Security of the data is enhanced.
• Keeping track of the company’s finance.
• Products can be purchased online using devices such as mobile phones.
• All the events such as sales are automated (Mulay, 2017).

Features of 3PL warehouse manager

• Cloud- oriented solution.
• It’s very reliable.
• Less costly.
• Ability to meet the needs of the consumers.
• Ability to incorporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
• Ability of minimizing errors in the functionality of the system.
• Automatic in nature (NJOKU & OU, 2015)

Features of QStrat solution

• Ability of integrating business solutions like Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
• Ability of meeting customers’ demands.
• Enhance smooth selling of the products and goods.
• High degree of accuracy.
• Automation in nature.
• Ability to forecast the profits that can be generated from the products (Davarzani & Norrman, 2015).

Applicability of the Vendor Solutions to my Health Record System

Simply, the core function of my health record system is to store the details of the patients. Procurify vendor solution can be used for adopting cloud storage mechanism where the data of the patients can be stored online. This vendor solution will monitor closely the details of the patients. Also, 3PL warehouse manager can be applied in the system. It will enhance meeting of the demands of the system users such as physicians and surgeons. On the other hand, QStrat vendor solution can enhance the interaction between the doctors and their patients because of incorporating business solutions such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

According to the cloud-based solutions, data and information can be stored online. Apart from storing data and information, files such as videos and songs can also be stored online. Cloud storage is one of the major emerging trends in the field of technology (Bagheri & Shaltooki, 2015). Over the recent years, the rate of adopting cloud storage by many companies and organizations has increased rapidly because its less cheap as compared to the other techniques and methods of storing data such as flash disks and external hard disks. There are many benefits that are associated with cloud storage technology. The following are some of the benefits and advantages of using cloud storage:

• Less costs are incurred while installing and implementing of cloud storage technology because it does not require any special tools and equipment. Also, it does not require power so store information and files. Hence, many hospitals and health centers can afford the costs of installing the technology without any financial problems.
• Enhance recovery of information and data. Data that has been stored in the physical devices like the internal storage of the computer, flash disks and external hard disks can be lost or corrupted, therefore, leading to the loss of important data and information of the company or the organization. Cloud storage can store the copy of the available documents in the company, hence the information can be retrieved in case the available data has developed some problems or has been corrupted. Hence, data and information of the patients can be retrieved easily by health care specialists such as the physicians and surgeons.
• Data that has been stored in the clouds can be retrieved anytime when the need arises. The documents and files are always available if there is an internet connection. Also, information can be retrieved from any area and country. Therefore, the data of the patient can be accessed easily from any health care center or hospital that the patient has been admitted.
• The ease of use. Using cloud storage does not require any technical knowhow since it’s very easy and simple to store data online. The entire process only involves moving some

Benefits of My Health Record System

files and documents from the local storage to the relevant cloud storage application that has been already installed in the Personal Computers (PCs) and desktops. Therefore, the data of the patients can be retrieved with a lot of comfort and ease by health care

professionals such as physicians and the surgeons.

• The bandwidth. Cloud storage has enhanced the use of Uniform Resource Locators (URL). Simply, URLs are used widely today as a link for accessing certain documents and files from the internet. The introduction to cloud storage technology has made it possible for sharing such links via social media platforms like Facebook, twitter and Instagram. Also, these links can be shared through the email. This technology has replaced the entire process of sending documents directly through the email. Therefore, the documents that contain information about the conditions of the patient can be shared through the internet links between different hospitals and medical centers (Bagheri & Shaltooki, 2015).

However, there are certain limitations that have been encountered by several companies and organizations while using cloud storage technology. Some of the weaknesses include the following:

• Accessibility of the files and documents that have been stored online. The data and information that has been stored using cloud storage mechanism can only be accessed via the internet, hence this has inconvenienced certain companies and organizations that are in remote areas that cannot access the internet. Therefore, health care centers and hospitals that are in remote areas cannot access the documents that have been saved online, hence delaying diagnosis of the patients’ conditions by physicians.
• Operating of the cloud storage systems. Although cloud storage system does not require skilled personnel, but the entire process of operating the system needs a lot of care, hence its very sensitive. The operator of the technology can cut the files completely from the desktop to the cloud storage that can lead to the loss of the original copies of the data. The operator of the system needs to copy the files rather than moving them from the desktop to the cloud storage. Thus, the original data and information of the patient can be corrupted, hence delaying the entire process of treating the patient (Bagheri & Shaltooki, 2015).

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is associated with the series of processes that are involved when designing and developing a system to meet the needs of demands of its users. The proposed project can be approached using the following two categories of SDLC: Adaptive and Predictive SDLC. Adaptive SDLC is concerned with the flexibility of the proposed system to incorporate new variables that may be added to the system because of the change in the size of the market alongside other factors. There are three stages that are involved while adopting adaptive SDLC; speculate, collaborate and learn. On the other hand, predictive SDLC is associated with accommodating of the issues that may result in the future, while using the proposed system (Öztürk, 2016). Hence, some of the threats and problems are determined in advance. There are many pros and cons that are associated with these two approaches of SDLC.

Advantages of Adaptive SDLC

• Incorporation of the added variables to the system when the need arises, therefore, satisfying the needs of the system users.
• Less time is taken to develop the proposed system since some changes can be added later.

Disadvantages of Adaptive SDLC

• This approach requires to be integrated differently with each application.
• Adaptive SDLC is susceptible to many problems and malfunctions because of its complicated nature.
• High costs are incurred while using adaptive SDLC approach (Öztürk, 2016).

Advantages of Predictive SDLC

• The goals of the proposed system are stated explicitly.
• The specifications of the proposed system are consistent ranging from the higher to the lower priority specifications.
• Progress of developing the proposed system can be determined.
• The chances of the proposed system to result in errors are very low.

Disadvantages of Predictive SDLC

• The entire process of developing the proposed system takes a lot of time because the prerequisites of the system are determined and described explicitly in advance.
• The developed system cannot accommodate any variable that is added to it (Sakul-Ung & Chutimaskul, 2017).

Having discussed the benefits and limitations that are associated with both the two

approaches of SDLC, the project should use the adaptive approach. This is because less time can be used in designing and developing the system. Also, the flexibility nature of the adaptive SDLC is very essential, therefore, enabling the system to accommodate the necessary changes that are added to it leading to the satisfaction of the needs of the system users (Öztürk, 2016). Generally, the field of medicine is not static because of the new diseases that are invented from time to time. Also, there are different developments of the similar conditions of the patients. Therefore, using adaptive SDLC will enable health care professionals like the surgeons to update the information and data of their patients alongside the new diseases that can emerge.

Conclusion

To conclude, my heath record system is a very important tool in the field of medicine at large as evidenced throughout the paper. Health is simply concerned about the normal functioning of different parts of the human body such as the heart, kidney and the lungs. It is a state of being free from any form of destructions such as diseases, for example, tuberculosis, cancer and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) like syphilis and gonorrhea.  Apart from the normal functioning of the body, health can also involve mental and psychological factors such as emotions. The process of diagnosis is very sensitive and critical since it’s the initial stage of determining the cause of the patient’s problems. For instance, incorrect diagnosis by the physician can affect the entire process of treating the patient, and afterwards can result in many complications. Diagnosis involves following the background of the initial stage of the condition

alongside the forms in which the condition has been changing to the current form of the condition. However, implementation of my health record system to the medical centers requires several vendor solutions such as procurify which is a cloud-based solution, 3PL warehouse manager which is also a cloud-based solution and QStrat solution that can be used for distribution of the medical resources. Besides, the project should use the adaptive approach. This is because less time can be used in designing and developing the system. Also, the flexibility nature of the adaptive SDLC is very essential, therefore, enabling the system to accommodate necessary changes that are added to it leading to satisfaction of the needs and demands of the users.

References

Bagheri, H., & Shaltooki, A. A. (2015). Big Data: challenges, opportunities and Cloud based solutions. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 5(2), 340.

Davarzani, H., & Norrman, A. (2015). Toward a relevant agenda for warehousing research: literature review and practitioners’ input. Logistics Research, 8(1), 1.

Digitalhealth.gov.au. (2018). My Health Record system and Healthcare Identifiers (HI) – Australian Digital Health Agency. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/get-started-with-digital-health/what-is-digital-health/features-of-the-my-health-record-system/my-health-record-system-healthcare-identifiers [Accessed 21 Mar. 2018].

Mulay, A. (2017). DATA ANALYTICS USING IOT IN PROCUREMENT. International Education and Research Journal, 3(10).

NJOKU, D., & OU, K. A. (2015). EFFECTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR PROFITABILITY ENHANCEMENT IN THE COMPETITIVE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 3(12), 90-112.

Öztürk, V. (2016). Flexible and Adaptive Life Cycle Framework for Software Development. JSW, 11(9), 943-951.

Sakul-Ung, P., & Chutimaskul, W. (2017, February). A predictive model for successful software development projects with information technology strategic alignment. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software and Computer Applications (pp. 39-45). ACM.

The Conversation. (2018). The problems that occur when health data is not used. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-problems-that-occur-when-health-data-is-not-used-82453 [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].