Kaiser Permanente, a national non-profit, health care center has something to say about HIV care in this article. Their approach to treatment has led to the following advances.
- No disparities for mortality & meds rates among black & latinos
- 69% of + patients are effectively controlling the virus with meds, compared to at most 35% nationally
- HIV mortality rates are half the national average
- They have a 90+% regimen adherence among their patients
- 89% of + patients are in HIV-specific care within 90 days of diagnosis, compared to 50 % elsewhere.
I lifted those bullets from the article, but the point it simply, those specifics are amazing. According to them they owe all of this to EMR, Electronic Medical Records. I know there are some privacy concerns with the idea of having your medical records in a digital format. However, few doctors these days rely on hard copy. If these records are on any computer connected to the net then they can be hacked. There will always be that risk with any information on a online computer.
However, the rewards of this program are tremendous. Simply by allowing for consistency & continuity in treatment via these records, the success of this programs are noteworthy. I can get little paranoid about my records, but if it means this is the result, then by all means keep them electronically. EMR's can also save time & effort when dealing changing doctors & having your records forwarded. They can save lives by transmitting data to EMT's.
Like it or not, EMR's are the way things are going. You might as well focus on the positive's they can bring you, instead of the negatives they might. I'm pretty happy with this.
Cya
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