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A system of electronic mapping which allows many different types of data to be layered onto a single image is being used to improve healthcare across Rwanda. The digital maps, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are designed to compile information from numerous databases and use it to both track and predict outbreaks of disease.

A system of electronic mapping which allows many different types of data to be layered onto a single image is being used to improve healthcare across Rwanda. The digital maps, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are designed to compile information from numerous databases and use it to both track and predict outbreaks of disease.

A system of electronic mapping has been developed that allows different types of data to be layered onto a single image. It is being used to improve the health care in Rwanda. These digital maps are called Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The database is compiled of information from different doctors working on cases of malaria. This brings up the issues of reliability and integrity. The information in the database needs to be reliable enough for the doctors to use in treating patients with malaria. It affects both doctors and patients, but the patients are being affected the most because they are the ones being treated. If the information is inaccurate, the patients may be placed in dangerous situations.

Can these cases be relevant to our class case study?

The Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS) is providing countries, such as South Africa, with an online patient medical record system.

This article is about the need for OpenMRS in developing countries such as South Africa. This is necessary because it will help improve how people are treated. By knowing about someone's medical history, it can help decrease the spread of diseases such as HIV and Aids.

The issue is that there is a lack of open medical record systems in developing countries. Because of this diseases are being spread when they can easily be prevented. The thing that people were doing that gave rise to this issue is that in some countries, diseases were being spread at a faster rate then in others because of lack of background medical information. the impact that this has on people is that people in developing countries are spreading diseases at a faster rate. So diseases such as HIV and Aids are spreading in developing countries such as South Africa because of lack of medical background. The stakeholders are patients. The IT system is open medical record system. The area of impact is health. The social and ethical issue is equality of access. By having a medical record of everyone, people will be able to be treated equally because the doctor's will have their whole medical history.

"Mrs Watt's local hospital is in Fraserburgh. She was seen by a local doctor who then decided to link up by video with specialists at the A&E department in Aberdeen. After assessing the injury they decided Mrs Watt needed to travel the 40 miles into the city to have the break properly reset and plastered. Mr Ferguson explained that the use of telemedicine had proved crucial. "All the local casualty departments throughout NHS Grampian have got a video conferencing link through to us. "Already today we've seen more than 20 patients that way and only three have had to come into Aberdeen. "All the rest have been treated locally which of course saves people travelling in this weather and saves time and resources here.""

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"The African Medical Research and Education Foundation, is putting Computer Aid International PCs, together with scanners and digital cameras, into rural health clinics in some of the most isolated communities in Africa. From there, nurses and newly qualified doctors can email pictures via the internet to clinical specialists for instant expert diagnosis. By this mechanism people living in rural areas can have access to the best clinical diagnosis available and medical conditions can be treated promptly and accurately with life-saving consequences. "

This articles with the solutions that were created by telemedicine during the disastrous earthquake. Much similar to victims in Argentina or those in Argentina who don't have telemedicine, those victims in Haiti are being treated through telemedicine. After the unfortunate earthquake in Haiti, the University of the Miami took into their own hands to set up various tents around Haiti. Besides having very little medicine, Haiti also had a communication problem. These from the University of Miami were not able to communicate with those from the United State. Therefore, they set up real time technology as a form of communication in order to consult colleagues at the University of Florida. Two devices about the size of a laptop were donated to them, and the satellite telephone, internet and video camera contained in each allowed the doctors to communicate with each other. These satellites allowed doctors to conduct and give prescriptions as well as well as communicate to other doctors of those patients who needed to evacuated from the are and taken to the United States for Health care. This article also talks about doctors who are using cellphones in order to take pictures and perform x-rays. There are a variety of stakeholders in relation to the satellites that are allowing the doctors from the University a Miami to perform their real time operations for their consultations and for prescribing medicine. One of these stakeholders would be the people or victims in haiti. After the Earthquake, many were left in dangerous need of assistance, and without these satellites, there would be no way in which they could communicate with people in the United States (The University in Miami) in order to get proper prescriptions. These are very important stakeholders, because if the people of Haiti aren't provided with this form of telemedicine, they would not be able to get treated for the illnesses/injuries that occurred to them during the earthquake. Another stake holder is the U

niversity of Miami. Without these satellites, they would not be able to do their job. This is the only form of communication they have with their fellow doctos in the United States. In the Article, is specifies that the doctors had a hard time creating forms of communication in Haiti, therefore if the satellites do not function, the doctors from UMiami, would not be able to prescribe medicine to the victims, and the victims would not be able to get their treatment. Social and Ethical issues then arrive from the Article and the IT system. These satellites that allow for communication and telemedicine are breaking down the digital divide. Specifically in the article, it states that Haiti did not have doctors and that form of technology in order to perform telemedicine. These satellites and bringing them to Haiti was breaking down a digital divide, in which it was giving them the IT that other countries were already familiar and working with. Another Social/Ethical issue that arrives from the IT system is Globalization. In the way in which it breaks down cultural, economic, or divisions causes by a countries location to another. The IT system allows for those in Haiti to communicate with those in the United States. Therefore, it is creating or breaking down any divisions that were previously there because of their location as countries. Another major Social/Ethical issue that arrises is Reliability. The doctors from the University of Miami are relying on these satellites in order to perform their job. If there is an issue on their reliability, it would be catastrophic to the worked (not having any form of communication with their colleagues) as well as the people who would no source of medicine through the real time consultations.

Please use this bookmark to post your reflections. Using a Paper 2 style approach, CRITERION A) identify the IT system and describe the issues. Identify the relationship of the major stakeholders to the issues. CRITERION B) Describe step-by-step how the system works and describe how the system is related to the issue(s). CRITERION C) Evaluate the impacts on society -- both positive and negative or from differing stakeholder's P.O.V. CRITERION D) Evaluate the efficacy of a solution to the problem.

There is another issue along with this involving the ability of researchers to have full access to the information about anyone. Many people want to maintain their right to privacy, but others argue that this could lead to new knowledge about diseases, and the development of new medicines. For those who are afraid of risking their privacy, there are standards developed in order to protect them. Their information, such as SSNs are encoded for security reasons and the DNA part of the project is voluntary, and not imposed. However, ethicists are still afraid of this database. They claim that the future of DNA is a valuable thing because it can predict the probability of diseases, life expectancies, etc. But all copies can be made available to the FBI, schools, etc. at the time of birth. For the Biotech Industry, this is seen as a huge advantage because people an be tested for hundreds of diseases. The awareness of the disease is a great thing, because it could lead to early prevention. However, the system is faulty because it sometimes doesn't provide certainty of a disease and it limits a person's privacy. Other times, there is no cure for the disease, so the patient cannot do anything even if they know. In relation to this, there also will arise severe psychological impacts of a person knowing that they have the possibility for getting a life threatening disease. If this is a disease that will affect them later on in life, it would be detrimental for a person to live their life without the hope of a prosperous future. A solution to this problem could be giving patients the choice of knowing or not.

Criterion A - The IT system is the DNA database containing information about the genetic past, present, and future of the patients. The primary issues associated with this database are of privacy and anonymity. These issues arise when patients, who are one of the major stakeholders, feel that that the information in these databases shouldn't be accessible to others, or anyone for that matter. While some believe this is private information, others believe that the information should not be known by anyone because of the ethical issues associated with knowing what will come in the future. Criterion B - The medical database is a relational database meaning that it establishes relationships between different tables in the database. The smallest building blocks of a relational database are items. Items are individual pieces of information in tables. These items are organized into fields and records. Fields are columns in a table that that represent different categories of information. Records are rows that represent all the information for a specific patient. At the cross-section of a particular record and field lies the item associated with a specific piece of information related to the specified patient. These tables are related to each other through links which are established by unique primary keys assigned to each patient. This system is related to the issue of privacy because the information contained within it is considered by many to be privileged and access to it should be very limited or altogether eliminated. Criterion C - The impacts of such a database on society are varied. Some people are very against the entire idea of a genetic database because of its ethical concerns. When people have their blood analyzed for DNA, they are giving up their genetic make-up. The information that can be obtained from such tests is considered by many to be privileged, and by others to be completely unethical in every way. Often people are against very private medical

"The Millennium Villages use so-called telemedicine technology to improve health care. Health workers in the villages are given mobile phones and sent out to treat patients. After testing patients for various diseases, the workers send the results via text message to remote clinics and are told which treatment to provide. "It is a very wonderful system," Mr Sachs said. "It empowers providers in the community to get very powerful results.""

Economist argues that the West can afford $32bn for Africa, after a pilot scheme proves to be a success in reducing poverty and increasing HIV awareness. Poverty is decreasing in the village which is creating a drastic change. The people of the village are effected by this because they are part of the area affected. Just like the on in class, the area of interactions is health and the IT system is telemedicine, as well as computer devices. The major issues regarding this article are as follows: people and machines is one of the better ones because the machines are shaping the lives of different humans. Change is being established, which usually leads to both good and bad things.

""Diagnosis of the ailment of the patient is undertaken and solutions are jointly agreed upon by both doctors. The patient is treated here in Nigeria and he does not have to travel to India. That is the beauty of telemedicine.""

University World News

"Google Health and others in the fast-growing personal health record business say they are offering a revolutionary tool to help patients navigate a fragmented healthcare system, but some doctors fear that inaccurate information from billing data could lead to improper treatment."

This case study tackles the issues of Integrity and Reliability. The article talks about inaccurate health records and it effect on patients who want to follow updates on their health status. The stakeholders in this articles are patients because they are the ones who need accurate information, doctors because patients come to them when they read inaccurate information about their health and the people who control the information in the databases because they are the ones responsible for whether or not the information is accurate. Integrity is an appropriate Social and Ethical Issue because the information in the databases have a been changed accidentally, in turn affecting accuracy. Reliability is even better because is directly about accuracy of data, if it is entered incorrectly. If data is entered wrong patients lose trust in them. This is especially relevant to databases which is the major IT system discussed in this article. In relation to the case study it is important to find a solution for the patients of Africa, that is as efficient as possible. In a place like the one described in the study it is important to save time by being as accurate as possible and making sure that patents and doctors can understand the information on databases, ensuring more successful treatments for the patients.

In the East African city, the medical facilities all contain databases that their patient's health records are recorded on, however the platform for each database varies between each clinic and the main hospital. This in turn makes it more difficult to exchange health records between each clinic and the main hospital.This article brings up a solution to the health records exchange problem that are within this East African Region. Google Health is a database that is in the cloud and makes it possible to exchange health records through the internet. This form of exchanging data for a patient helps to keep a patient's data up to date. Now though this could be a great solution it comes with many drawbacks from the system and the lacking materials from the East African region makes it difficulty to better utilize it.

This article is primarily about setting standards and protocols so that an electronic health records could world easily and securely for many health care providers and suppliers. The reason the introduction of an EHR hasn't worked before, is that there were no data-sharing standards, which would ensure that the data is transmitted securely across the internet. These standards are also in accordance of many of the interests of all of the health providers and stakeholders involved, which was a major problem previously. Without the issue of connecting the EHR from provider to provider, then the records would be a "fancy...way to capture data," and it's full potential would never be recognized. However, these new standards and protocols, filled with secure transactions based on encryptions, have made the introduction of an electronic health record possible. There are many benefits to the use of an EHR, including productivity and financial improvement for the companies and the employees. For example, doctors/nurses no longer need to spend time pulling a patient's file, or writing the details of the visit afterwards. There are also fewer repetitive tasks, and improved communication between doctor and nurse, or doctor and another doctor. Quality of care may also improve because doctors have quick access to a patient's information, there is better monitoring and discovery of chronic illnesses, and doctors can return phone calls/ provide medication refills immediately. Also, in general, the electronic charts allow for a more efficient office, which leads to a less stressful environment and more attention on the patients' care rather than searching for their charts. This can only be done through the introduction of an EHR, leading to easier queries, instant reorganization, and file management that could be transmitted to both the patient and any other doctors. This minimizes the ambiguity of not having tests results from one doctor, and allows all doctors treating a p

patient to see all of the patient's history. This is important in having a correct diagnosis and treatment. However, there are also some drawbacks. Initially, doctors who chose to engage in the implementation of a EHR, see some decreases in productivity. This is because entering information and learning how to use the software takes some time. Some doctors also do not have the money to invest in such software and accompanying hardware to, and others no not want to because they are accustomed to their hand-written charts. There are also some security issues, leading to greater privacy issues. The EHR maintains very personal data about a patient, and if the records are breached, then the privacy of the patient may be put at risk. There is also the issue of interoperability, which was brought up in the article. Many of the companies in different countries wishing to engage in the implementation of EHR have different standards involving the usage. This could harm the usage of an international EHR.

After hurricane Karl hit and practically flooded all of Veracruz, Mexico, many people were left wounded. This article talks about three specific patients who had "hard to heal ulcers" or the stakeholders. Along with the patients, the other stakeholders in this case were the specialists reviewing the information sent to them and the people present in the same location as the4 patient. These patients were taken to PEMEX General Hospital in Veracruz. Pictures were taken using digital cameras and were small enough to be sent to through email to specialists in Mexico City. There, they analyzed the high quality pictures and were able to give a diagnostic. An issue could be security since these files are being sent through regular email as clearly stated in the article " small enough to be sent via regular email ". If there isnt a specific network that these health centers are using it might not be delivered without having someone have looked at it before. The IT system(s) in this case were the digital camera used to take pictures of the patients injuries. The computer was also another system as well as cameras used for video conferencing. By having been able use telemedicine, it saved the energy of the patients having to go to another state just to be treated.

This is not a new item, it is an abstract of a medical journal article.

The article speaks about the growth of telemedicine in the rural parts of India. It focuses on the advantages telemedicine provides the people living in the rural areas of India and how it is not only able to avoid serious conditions such as blindness but also how early detection can help them undergo an operation at a much cheaper rate. In this a local villager does not have to go to a hospital for diagnosis but is able to go to a local village and a doctor sitting in the hospital is able to treat via video conference which is conducted on a wi-fi network using webcams.