Medical Report Software Features And Functions

Medical report software might seem like nothing other than an excellent way to keep track of patient appointment needs, treatment, and outcomes. However, there is another use for medical report software and that is as a basis for research.

Skull Fractures
The two types of skull fractures - linear and compound

There are special research programs that fall into the category of data management and analysis software. Typically these programs use medical report extractor software that runs through the database containing medical reports that have been collected and stored using a software program.

The medical report software will have stored the information in a structure that meets the standards of the day so that the data has a form and shape that can be sorted and extracted according to the specific needs of the study.

The extractor software then pulls out the information that is pertinent to the research and organizes it into a structured format. For instance, the extractor software might pull out information on women over 60 with cataracts.

No identifying data is extracted. All that is pulled out of the database is the raw data which is disconnected from the personal information about the patient with the cataracts.

The next step is to run data analysis software on the extracted data. The final step is to run data management software which can then look at the relationship between the data and the information on the patient that is non-identifying to the patient. Information such as age, gender, and ethnicity can all provide useful data and yet allow the patient to have complete privacy.

Privacy is the most important consideration in storing electronic medical records. There have been efforts especially since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) came into effect to remove identifiers from electronic medical records. In the process of removing identifiers, several medical report software components have to be considered.

Medical record software typically records identifiers associated with the patient. This can be the patient's name, medical record number, and pathology accession number. However, in protecting privacy, even more diligence is needed. There are other ways to identify a patient through data such as dates, accession numbers, home or work addresses, institution names, and physician names.

Medical report software is a great tool for the medical practitioner to use in keeping track of patients and their treatment. It is also a great tool for research that will eventually lead to improved patient care. There is a fine line between tracking the patient and protecting the patient's privacy. Luckily there is software that can handle both.