The Internet means of communication and promotion of the virtual medical world

Ph.D assistant lecturer Adina BLAN*

Economic Informatics Department, The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, e-mail: adinaburicea@yahoo.com Abstract: The internet- the main information and communication resource offers to health specialists and patients medical publications, specialty knowledge, sites of medicine based on evidences, rapid information that can be found online, on the web pages of the university clinics, on discussions forums. The virtual world became rapidly part of the technologies landscape from the health and medical services system. If worldwide there are millions of medical sites, the specialist from the health system who is in search of a medicine, of a procedure, of a result or of a therapy, will be able to replace entire book shelves of the medical library with a computer connected to the Internet. By accessing pages of the famous clinics, discussions forums about various diseases, the web pages of certain groups of individuals suffering from severe illnesses, physically disabling or with a great psychological impact, patients can obtain important medical information. But there is a risk in this medical informational explosion which requires from beneficiary a great amount of judgment when using it. The commercial assault of the excessive promotion of medicines also brings about the risk of self-medication and self-treatment so that the competent and authorized medical decision is excluded. If in the case of physicians the facility to access the digital information eliminates many of the time consuming situations, in the case of patients the problem of the quality of the medical information from the Internet can become quite dramatic. If the Romanian patient resorts to medical services from the Internet without taking into account his history, the hereditary collateral antecedents and the medical data included in his health file, the risk of an erroneous medical decision is imminent. To guide the community of consumers and suppliers of health services, continuously increasing by means of WWW, in order to find medical information and reliable expertise can be a great challenge for the decision makers from the health system, contributing thus to a better and more efficient health care process. Keywords : Internet, medical services, reliable medical information, virtual medical world, risk, self-medication, the quality of digital medical information, medical decision

Medical electronic record - success or failure in the medical decision from the Romanian health system?
Ph.D assistant lecturer Adina BLAN*
Economic Informatics Department, The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, e-mail: adinaburicea@yahoo.com Abstract: Investments in informational and communication technologies in the health field represent a form of investing in the human capital because the improvement of the physical and emotional condition of the individuals of a society, health and medical services will exceed the doctor-patient relationship and will become a priority problem of the community. The ageing of the population, the low birth rate, transborder health, threats or diseases connected to unhealthy life styles determined new health politics. The prolonged waiting to benefit from a consultation, the excessive bureaucracy, the incoherent and restrictive legislative regulations which provide the periodical renewal of the prescription by the physician in case of long time treatments, lead to the agglomeration of patients at the physician`s door. Increasing the waiting time, the medical service becomes inefficient and of poor quality, and the physician wastes some time filling in scripts instead of giving consultations. . The lack of relevant data, the oversized volume of redundant or contradictory data, the lack of informational flow from top to bottom, of feedback to data producers, and the fact that the data interpretation does not return in the system have as an effect a medical decision lacking information at the level of the basic data sources. In Romania, in the medical office, the documents, the evidences and reporting are hand or automatically written, the drawing up of medical documents (prescriptions, sending notes, registers) take up a great deal of the consultation time, subsequently reducing the time allocated to the actual medical act. In these conditions, a process of functional computerization is absolutely compulsory in this situation and the generation of a unique digital form which could fulfil any of the roles of the documents could be a solution. It is noticed in Romania a high degree of data fragmenting, with a negligible communication, often inexistent, within and outside the system, and the decision makers of the health system hold exclusivity on their own data, fact that makes them unavailable to the other participants to the system. The software-s, the formats and supports used differ both inside the system and outside it. And because a patient is given a diagnosis without complete and safe medical data, the medical error is one of the causes for the incorrect diagnose of the patient. The decision makers from the health system must take on responsibilities for the efficient and safe management of these data, to represent a desired issue for all medical institutions. Only the interconnected and standardized electronic medical files will be able to improve the medical decision and the care given to patients. The medical electronic record a basic component of any health electronic file must represent all relevant information about an individual`s health in digital format from birth to death. Only this information can offer a complete image of the medical profile and history of any patient, so that the clinical decision will be correct if the medical data are managed in an integrated, interoperable, standardized, sophisticated decision support system and easy in selecting the best treatment option. The care will be safer, more efficient, the medical piece of information could also serve to other clinic physicians in time and space by using the information and communications technology. The complete medical electronic record must include all types of information of the patient (medical, family history, health file, hereditary-collateral antecedents, treatments, prescriptions, allergies) and they must be protected, shared by physicians, patients and those interested in a safe and extended environment.

It is necessary to computerize the medical information specific to patient and the clinical processes, and performance in the health system will depend on the transformation of the medical services system by bringing the benefits of the medical science and technology to all individuals. Keywords: inefficient medical service, medical electronic record, medical information computerization, interconnected electronic medical files, medical error, health electronic file, clinical decision, protected and shared medical information.