Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Why Electronic Medical Records Are Dangerous To Older Adults

October 21, 2013 By Michael Wasserman, M.D.

A recent experience with my father-in-law reminded me of something that has concerned me for some time. While EMRs have some benefits for older adults, on balance I believe that they portend more dangers. There are multiple reasons, but the biggest is that healthcare providers tend to believe everything they read in an EMR. Even if what they read is wrong!

A wise computer programmer once told me that “computer’s are dumb as posts,” they are only as good as the information that human beings load into them. Human beings make mistakes, hence, inaccurate or false information will find it’s way into an EMR. The doctor who reviewed my father-in-law’s EMR prior to seeing him made the first cardinal sin, he believed everything that he read in the record.

The second error was in not directly getting the history from my father-in-law and myself as I sat at the bedside. The final mistake was in doing a cursory examination and forgetting the most important tool a physician has, his own eyes, nose, and ears. I’ve often told my patients that the most important thing I ever do is to pay attention to how they look and act when I walk into the exam room. My experience and instincts will sound alarms that then lead me on my search to figure out what I need to do to help them.

It is well known that chess grandmasters think in terms of patterns. They look at the entire chess board and look for recognizable patterns. I believe that geriatricians are similar to grandmasters. If we get caught up focusing on our patient’s diabetes and hypertension, we may miss the more subtle changes that are occurring in their function and quality of life. EMRs have the distinct disadvantage that they are often singularly focused on specific diseases.

The answer is geriatric medicine. Geriatricians are trained to care for the frail elderly. We are trained to look at patterns and the big picture. Keeping a 90-year-old’s blood sugar or blood pressure too low might create problems rather than solve them. The focus on maximized function and quality of life may not mesh with achieving certain laboratory based numerical goals.

One of my favorite stories is about an 88-year-old patient of mine who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was treated with expensive anti-hormonal injections that chemically castrated him. He was getting weaker and finally ended up hospitalized with pneumonia. The urologist was killing the prostate cancer and killing my patient. We stopped the injections and actually placed him on testosterone. The urologist was apoplectic! I asked him what level of PSA was associated with metastases to the bone. He responded, as I knew, that it was over 30. I then said, well, let’s watch his PSA, and if it goes above 20, we can consider treating him again. My patient is now 95-years-old, and still active and functional. His PSA has hovered around 15 for the past 3 years.

Continue reading…

Related Articles Read More >

Logos of Creo Medical and Intuitive
Creo Medical inks collaboration agreement with Intuitive
Lazurite ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system Minnetronix Medical
How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
Medtronic Hugo robot-assisted surgery system
The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech