Commercial interests hinder electronic medical records

Today, the fear seems to be passing and, for Ruíz, medicine is entering the new era of the AI ​​Assistant for all health professionals. Several things happened along the way: previously, storing medical information was expensive because it involved paper, filing cabinets, storage space. In addition, sharing personal data, without controls, from a clinical file, for example, was ethically risky, without the current technological controls.

The AI ​​and Cloud Solution

Cloud storage services now exist that have made data storage much more affordable and accessible for hospitals, and there are also ethical and cybersecurity controls in place to try to reduce the risk of misuse of personal data.

And yet, the problem is that after 15 years in Mexico, electronic medical records have not become a reality. María Fernanda González, a specialist in digital health, points out that the obstacle is no longer technological, but rather the particular interests of hospitals.

Conflicting interests

“In the different private hospitals that exist there it is difficult. There it is complicated because just as the patient is a client, the doctor is also a client of the hospital,” explains the expert and, in this sense, since the hospital sells the hospital infrastructure to both the doctor and the patient, it claims the right to the data generated.

Digital penetration in the world of medicine is just beginning, said specialists who participated in the presentation of Meddi, a comprehensive solution for doctors.

Millions of data and a virtual assistant

And, although there are regulations in Mexico to facilitate a shared information network and the existence of an electronic medical record, the regulations are still far from the Mexican reality, says Fernanda González.

The advantages could be diverse and, with the help of AI, they could remove bureaucratic burdens from, for example, nurses; who, far from filling out bureaucratic forms, would dedicate themselves more intensively to care work.

There are also international examples of the success that electronic medical records would bring to doctors. Millions of data could be analysed, which, for example, could reduce the diagnosis of rare diseases from 10 years to just 5 years.

During the presentation of Meddi, it was explained that this is a new product that integrates technological solutions supported by Google to facilitate the work of doctors, refer and profile more patients and support them with an affordable civil liability policy. This is a solution that is free of charge for health professionals at launch.