EMR: Electronic Medical Records or Extraordinarily Malicious Requirements?

It was with a heavy heart that I left the Notre Dame campus just a short while ago. The feeling was rather absurd because I have just this afternoon returned but I know I will experience the same feelings at the end of June. Why have I returned to Notre Dame, you ask? To play in the dirt, of course! I am thrilled to spend the next three weeks working on the Bailey Homestead excavation here in northern Indiana. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let me fill you in on what has been going on for the past month.

I was lucky enough to shadow my own primary care physician a few days a week these past four weeks. In just a short time, I have learned so much about medicine and the life of a physician. I also discovered three dreaded letters: E-M-R better known as electronic medical records. My first day on the job just happened to coincide with the second day of launching eClinicalWorks, one of many EMR programs.

Now, the common consensus states that EMR is the way of the future and will make everything easier on physicians. In the long run, sure, I can see it speeding up appointments and keeping things organized. However, on the short term, every single patient is a new patient. Even if they have been seeing the same doctor for thirty years, they are required to give their entire family history during their visit. Couple that with staff who were not raised with computers and it tends to cause a large headache.

Some physicians won't have too much difficulty with this because they have only a few patients who return every few weeks. But for family medicine physicians, some patients only have to come in every six months! This means that the transition will last for over six months, providing that all patients keep their appointments. It seems a big hassle now, but I still bear a shred of hope.

Even so, there are other issues with EMR. Doctors are some of the highest employing bosses. They need lab technicians, diagnoses coders, medical record keepers and more. With the advent of EMR, most of these roles are becoming automated. A nurse will not need to call down to medical records for a chart when a few clicks will pull it up. Nurses won't be needed to call patients with lab results when they are securely posted online and emailed.

I'm not sure about ObamaCare...it may benefit us in the end but from the evidence I've seen, I don't like it.

The Pace is Picking Up

Remember when they told us that college would be a lot of reading back in senior year of high school? Teachers warned us it would be as intense as AP World History was back in sophomore year. I thought to myself, scoffing, nothing could ever require as many notes and hours spent reading as AP World. Famous last words, anyone?

Freshman year came and there was 'recommended' reading to do before you attended lecture. Like most freshmen, I was bombarded with eighteen billion things to do all around campus so the reading assignments slipped into the background. Sure, I would skim the section titles in chemistry and I would actually do my Theology readings because they were short and interesting but everything else? Hmm, oh wait, there is glow-in-the-dark putt-putt on North Quad? Pfft, I'll do my reading tomorrow. Always tomorrow, always tomorrow.

Fast forward to sophomore year. I have more reading assignments that I could have ever dreamed of. Lecture (cough biology) is based on the book and even goes in the same order with the same pictures. I had two choices: I could do what I did freshman year and skim the readings and take good notes in lecture which worked out pretty well, or I could actually try to do the readings.

For now, I'm attempting to do all of the required readings before lecture class. Never have I had less free time! I don't know if I ever comprehended exactly how long it takes to read an academic book. I can devour a 500 page Harry Potter book in a few hours and retain everything that happened, no problem, but sit me down with my Anthropology text and twenty pages drags on for an hour!

I don't quite know why there is such a huge difference but it's a problem I need to solve as hundreds of pages of biology and organic chemistry reading pile up on me! Don't forget that the level of events to attend have only increased since freshman year.  Now there are things that I care about that I have committed to: things I can't skip off because I have a little extra reading to do.

I remember when we watched American Pie and thought college was going to be nothing but weekends right after each other with no work. Oh naiveté, where have you gone?

Life Sans Internet

Note to readers: This is less about India and more about transitioning. It is less of an update and more a self-reflection.

The past few days have been busy! I was rather sick after the Sirohi trip but sleeping almost the whole afternoon after school the next day really helped. The fact that the power (and my A/C) and the water pipes went out that morning didn’t help any. I guess I should know better than to set my room to cold when I know it isn’t helping me adjust especially since I have the only A/C in the entire building. A girl’s got to have the little things, doesn’t she? The lack of cool air coupled with my inability to shower really frustrated my day. On the bright side, that was the first day where we finally got Skype to work and I got to see my mother. Even though it was only fifteen minutes before the internet shut down, it was a welcome fifteen minutes; it was also remarkably cheaper (i.e. Free) than the $0.50 each text messages. Phone companies can be annoying, can’t they? 

I never realized how much I depended on the internet to be there for me. With everything being done online through social media sites, email, shopping, and leisure websites there are few things left to do. (Mind you, I was not cognizant before the advent of the internet so I’ve never had to live without it.) It seems like everything I go to do in my downtime involves the internet! I can go learn new songs for guitar - nope, chords are on the internet. Oh! I can go write on facebook - nope, that needs internet. Well…I can’t go on dearblankpleaseblank, or givesmehope to waste time. Nor can I use stumbleupon. I can’t Skype my friends or family. What is there for me to do?

I find that I am writing. Whether it be this blog, a novel that I started but never finished, or a meager (and I mean meager) attempt at songwriting, I am just going at it. All I can think of to do is to write. I have many books with me (three print books with the rest on my kindle) but only three are new books and the others, while all good, can’t hold my attention. The kindle’s whispernet doesn’t quite reach out here, despite what Amazon would claim, so I have no new books from that avenue. (Edit: I was able to purchase four new books when I was at school and download them to my Mac there.) 

Here is a picture of a small class singing at the prayer service that started the school year.

I guess this is more of a ‘rant’ post than an update on India. Don’t get me wrong, I am really happy to be here and am enjoying it a lot; it is very eye opening yet there are things at home that I particularly miss. That is to say, the first thing I am doing when I get back to the US is to take an extremely hot (<-- very important since there is no heated water here) shower and sink into a big bathtub filled with bath salts and bubbles with a big bowl of Macaroni and Cheese in my hands. You have been warned. 

Have a happy Fourth of July and light off a few fireworks for me! I will be wearing as much red, white, and blue clothing that I am physically capable of!