Electronic Medical Records and Rx: Are People with Disabilities Involved?

TechnoBeat
Staff Column


By Jenifer Simpson

Health information technology (HIT) includes some almost mind-numbing vocabulary. These are subjects such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Personal Health Records (PHRs) and things like electronic prescriptions (E-Rx). I  bet your eyes are slowly closing already! However, as we all know from the struggles with voting machines, ATMs, phones, televisions and other technology, if we're not at the table ensuring our needs, and those of our family members, are met, you can be sure some decisions will be made that leave us out or leave us behind in the techno dust. Some recent discussions by experts working in the field note how most consumers are not aware of these topics and issues. The following articles, one on statistics about consumer views of EHRs,
and the other about E-prescribing and privacy issues may give you some sense of what may be coming down the techno pike sooon.

While AAPD has no specific polilcy position on on HIT, the AAPD Board of Directors passed a resolution in 2006 that said: "With regard to technology, barriers to usability and availability should be removed; all technologies should incorporate the concepts of accessibility and usability in design, development, production and dissemination, with the intention of making new technologies available to all persons regardless of disability."

With this guidance in mind, we all should be working to ensure that the principles of accessibillity, usability and availability are part of both the national and local policy discussions for health information technology. With millions of persons with disabilities having Medicaid as their main source of health care, at a minimum we should be keeping an eye on any state HIT efforts.  If you are interested in ensuring that health information technology efforts in your state include the disability point of view, please contact Jenifer Simpson at AAPD for further information on which organizations are already involved in your state, what steps may already be underway such as within Medicaid systems, and who to contact locally.

AAPD is involved with a number of national coalitions that provide us much information on this topic, and we encourage you to start getting tanked up on this topic and learn some more about how technology is changing our lives.

Contact: aapdjenifer@aol.com

Comments

[John]

most of us don't have a clue what an electrnoc medical record looks like but i sure would like to carry mine around in a memory stick and be sure that no one gets into it who shouldnot.

[Bill Thomasson]

John,

That memory stick can't be the only copy. To cite just one of many reasons, what if you lose the memory stick? But having a constantly updated copy of your medical records always with you is a great idea because it means that every doctor you see will have a complete picture of your health situation.

I'm not sure I see anything here specific to PWDs, though.