Online medical database helps physicians answer clinical questions.

Web Tool May Help Doctors Make Better Decisions

Press Release 05-206

DynaMed is a Information system that has a huge database that is able to help physicians in diagnoses as well as prescription dosing. According to a study done primary care physicians were able to answer more clinical questions when they used this online resource. With the use of Dynamic Medical Information System, or DynaMed, they were able to be more efficient and accurate with their decisions.

DynaMed was developed with the support of a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research award. DynaMed is a collection of more than 1,800 medical topics and their clinical summaries. Doctors can log in to DynaMed to compare patients' ailments with a peer-reviewed data base.

In a recent study they found that many doctors changed their diagnosis after the data base search. This is a prime example of a good system, it is user friendly and the Dr's are giving positive feedback.

The IS DynaMed is supported by NSF's SBIR program. This program emphasizes high-risk, high-payback innovations that are tied to NSF's mission of advancements in science, engineering and education.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=105636&org=NSF

Can Information Systems Make Your Doctor Better?

#1)
What problems are hospitals and physicians encountering in diagnosing diseases and prescription medications? What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these problems?

Physicians are often misdiagnosing diseases and then prescribing the wrong medication to treat the misdiagnosis. This occurs in hospital, Dr's Offices and nursing homes. These mis diagnoses can cause irrefutable damage such as death. Each year more than 1.5 million Americans are injured by drug errors and estimation of more than 7,000 Americans die because of inappropriate prescriptions. Outrageous charges are incurred to patients for faulty medication charges amounting to about $3.5 billion annually.Unfortunately human error is the key item responsible for these issues; handwriting, memory lapses, fatigue and distractions. The proliferation of medications also raises confusions and complexity for doctors in proper prescriptions. Unfortunately some of the information systems used to prevent these errors actually create new errors sue to the mass amounts of work the do.This calamity of chaos between the doctors and patients is leading to doctors second guessing themselves which is never a good thing. someone needs to design and implement a good Information System that could aid in this disaster.

#3)
What obstacles prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry? How can these obstacles be removed?

It has been shown that when hospitals convert to CPOE and DDS comp systems that they are more efficient and organized leading to less errors. These systems have been proven to save time as well as lives. There are however obstacles that need to be overcome if the systems are to be ran properly.
1) Resistance from doctors to change the traditional way of treatment, they complain and say the system is to difficult.
2) Simple glitches in the system increase the likelihood of ordering wrong medications by scattering patient data and drug ordering forms. The program needs to be well designed.
3) They need to be greater geared toward the nursing staff because they are the one’s doing the majority of the medicating.
4) Rigidity of such a system over the traditional paperwork, is an issue and can obstruct it from improving the medical industry.The obstacles can be overcome if: effective communication among the medical staff is achieved. They also need to learn more about the system and trust it. Finally, the system must be designed to have thorough pertinent information regarding each patient.

In order to overcome these obstacles the medical staff would need to have open communication. The company also need to set up multiple training sessions for the Dr’s and staff, so a knowledge and trust can be instated. Lastly the system would need to be designed with each individual patient in mind, so that errors could be caught before a fatal dose is given.