Technology for Managing a Doctors Health Center

Today, health-care providers and doctors health centers can go digital and make patient management more efficient, more secure, and more affordable with technology. If the administrative aspect of a doctors’ health center is done efficiently, then the clinical aspect runs just as smoothly, and more people can benefit from your health care services. Read on to find out the technology you need for managing a doctors health center.

Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records solve the most basic problems of doctors’ health centers: storage and organization. With electronic health records, the walls of folders that clutter your office can now be gone, eliminating the cost and effort of maintaining these files and allowing you to focus on your practice. You can either store your patients’ health records in your office, or utilize an electronic storage service provided by private companies like MDS Medical Software.

Aside from making your patient records easier to handle, it’s also easier to search and retrieve files once they are digitized. Most electronic health records software programs have a search feature, but there are also other services that make the search process easy. Alabama-based company SearchExpress allows doctors to scan their patients’ records and track them easily using a character recognition feature, saving health care providers the time and money involved in searching through paper documents.

Perhaps the greatest advantage about going digital is that you don’t have to be in your office to access your patients’ files. You can easily review lab reports and charts from the comfort of your own home. More advanced systems even allow patients to access their medical information and make appointments virtually.

Biometric Technology

Any information stored digitally is vulnerable to hackers, viruses, and worms. In the healthcare industry, security is just as important as any other fields, but a security system with complicated procedures is just as bad as having a non-secure network. Biometric technology provides the answer to this. Instead of having doctors type long passwords, a biometric system verifies your identity through your physical characteristics. Consider these technologies for your doctors health center.

Fingerprints

Fingerprint scanning is the most widely-used form of biometric security. Software developed by HP enables the user to scan his or her fingerprint with a quick swipe over a small electronic sensor located at the edge of the keyboard. The software automatically detects whose fingerprints they belong to and allows the user to log on to the computer to access certain files.

Palm Scanning

Fujitsu’s new PalmSecure system takes fingerprint scanning to a whole new level. Using an infrared sensor as small as an ice cube, the vein patterns of a person’s palm gets scanned and identified, allowing the user access to a computer. PalmSecure is designed for both doctors and patients, but Fujitsu first developed a system for patients so they can easily check in for appointments, view their records, check their schedule for appointments and tests, and update their contact information.

Face Recognition

Face recognition software is the most advanced form of biometrics, and a new face-recognition system called FastAccess is currently being developed for the healthcare industry. FastAccess uses a simple webcam to track hundreds of points of facial detail. The software consults a database of users to find a match for the face that was just recently scanned. When implemented, FastAccess will make logging into a computer completely effortless. In fact, its manufacturer says the program can make a match in less than three seconds.