The Globalization of Electronic-Based Medical Record Keeping

Presenter: Reid Bark, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars

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For my practicum project, I completed a 6-month paid internship at Robinson & Max Dermatology in Timonium, Maryland. Within the internship, I was able to work as a medical scribe. As a scribe, I had specific tasks that involved electronic medical record keeping, assisting in invasive surgeries, administering injections, and sending prescriptions. Throughout my experience working within the practice, I understood that fluidity of operations was vital to progress as both a business and a medical office. Transparency and communication is something that is a top priority in any medical business, which would not have been possible without the implementation of Electronic Medical Record keeping, which was established within the practice in 2014. After completing some primitive research on EMRs, I found it perplexing how practices around the world denied the use of EMRs, which is why I decided to focus on globalization. WIth a combination of research and experiences, I learned that the adaptation of EMRs has both tangible (costs) and cultural (loss of autonomy) barriers. While fluidity of operations greatly benefitted from the adaption of the record-keeping method, global practices continued their original use of record keeping to maintain sovereignty and autonomy within their culture. In the scope of public health, EMRs benefit both practices and patients, specifically how physicians gain a greater understanding of the extensive medical history of patients, as well as optimize patient experiences through increased transparency and accessibility of medical notes.