The emergence and application of existing technology have affected every part of our lives today. One of the most impactful areas of technology is in the healthcare setting. Today’s healthcare system has technology as its foundation for improved outcomes and efficiencies. Comparing the approach to health care at the present with that of about thirty years ago, one can begin to see how technology has improved administration and the entire clinical process. One of the specific areas that technology has become increasingly applied is in electronic health records (EHR). EHR is increasingly being used to store personal patient data and this can be used to improve patient care. This literature review focuses on the use of electronic health records to improve the outcomes and efficiencies in breast cancer screening, detection, and patient care.
Electronic Health Records
Electronic Health Records can be defined as an electronic system that has the capability of collecting and storing patient data and later supplying the information collected to healthcare providers in order to provide support. EHRs have been able to improve patient outcomes through the use of patient support, administrative support, electronic communication, and population management reporting. The application has been used to realize several benefits in the health care setting such as improvement in the clarity and accuracy of data, reduction in medical errors, and cost reduction for the healthcare institution and the patient. EHRs have also improved the ability in which patients can share information with their physicians through the use of portals. This has improved physician-patient communication care and monitoring and the result has been an improvement in patient satisfaction.
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Improvement in Breast Cancer Care Outcomes
One of the specific areas that electronic health records have been applied is in the screening, detection, and monitoring of breast cancer care. Favanju et al. (2016) examined how EHR systems can be used to create a value-based breast cancer care framework. The study examined different outcomes in the cycle of care including the health status achieved, the process of recovery, and the sustainability of the health (Favanju et al., 2016). The major patient data source that was examined and used was Epic Systems EHR. The study showed that the use of EHR systems where patient outcomes can be monitored can be used as an opportunity for performance improvement. The results further revealed that a unified EHR system can be used as a basis of benchmarking across different healthcare systems, healthcare providers, and even different countries (Favanju et al., 2016). This can be used to realize a value-based cancer care framework at the international level.
Patient-reported outcomes during breast cancer treatment can also be enhanced through the use of electronic health records. Sharma, Shulman, and James (2017) examined the future of quality improvement of breast cancer patient-reported outcomes through the use of various techniques. Some of the techniques that were found to be particularly effective were the use of EHR, patient portals, and health applications. It was established that when such systems are easy to use, fast, and relevant, they enable a rapid data collection, trending of the results, and actionable data analysis.
Breast cancer treatment and chemotherapy technology are continuously developing and the use of EHR can be used to enhance further development. It is thus important to monitor patient data and their experiences in order to find some of the ways to enhance further improvement. Some of the data points that were found to be relevant during the PRO measures of breast cancer were physical body functions, body image, emotional well-being, symptoms management, health status, and quality of care (Sharma, Shulman, & James, 2017). The analysis and improvement of all these specific data points in healthcare treatment can be used to improve overall health outcomes in healthcare treatment.
Electronic health records can be applied progressively to realize an improvement in the outcomes of healthcare. Kern et al., (2015) examined how EHR can be used to improve health care quality over time. There were 12 quality measures that were examined and one of the measures was breast cancer screening. The results showed that there was an absolute improvement in the quality of the screening 3 years after the implementation of the EHR. The improvement in the quality of screening and overall quality of care was done by considering the previous data and finding ways to make improvements on the data and information that was collected. The magnitude of improvements ranged between 4 and 28 percent among different measuring points (Kern et al., 2015). The analysis showed that the progressive use of EHR over some time can be used to realize gradual improvements.
Efficiencies
The application of healthcare systems can be used to improve breast-cancer care efficiency by ensuring early diagnosis of the cancerous cells. Wu et al., (2018) examined the capability of EHR to detect the most harmful breast cancer and established that an adequate usage of EHR can be used to predict breast cancer one year in advance. The “most harmful” breast cancers usually cause massive morbidity and mortality. It is thus important to make use of EHRs so researchers can collect patient information to show the development of breast cancer. The improve in the risk prediction becomes more pronounced when other prediction techniques such as genetic factors, breast density, and demographic risk factors are applied (Wu et al., 2018). EHRs can thus be used as an effective data source to improve breast cancer risk prediction.
The efficiency of breast cancer treatment can also be improved through the use of EHR data and cancer registry that automates the surveillance of pathway adherence. Such an approach was investigated by Fields et al., (2017) who examined clinical pathways that can be used to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare treatment. The application of Cancer Registry and EHR was found to be an effective strategy to be a pathway towards improved patient surveillance. A feedback loop can be created for the analysis and improvement of the care systems.
Lessons Learned
The main lesson learned is that electronic health records can be applied to effectively realize improvement in breast cancer treatment. What was most informative was the fact that the EHR of patients can be used to realize an early detection of “most harmful” cancer one year in advance. This shows that the use of such data can be used to improve the treatment of other cancers and significantly reduce the current high morbidity due to the illness. Additionally, the research revealed that technology is still developing and the application of technology is an ongoing process. Some of the technologies such as EHR systems have not been fully used and there is a need to improve their applications in different healthcare settings.
In conclusion, the application of technology such as clinical systems can be used to realize improvement in patient outcomes and effectiveness. For the given research, the application of EHR in the treatment of breast cancer was investigated. The results showed that EHR can be used to realize early diagnosis and detection of breast cancer. A proper application can be used to realize improved care by collecting and storing data dealing with patient feedback. EHR and other clinical systems should thus be continually applied in order to realize improvement in patient care.
References
Fayanju, O. M., Mayo, T. L., Spinks, T. E., Lee, S., Barcenas, C. H., Smith, B. D., ... & Walters, R. (2016). Value-based breast cancer care: a multidisciplinary approach for defining patient-centered outcomes. Annals of surgical oncology , 23 (8), 2385-2390.
Fields, K. K., Watson, A., Durand, A., Simpson, T., Stewart, S., Shi, J., ... & Rollison, D. E. (2017). Using cancer registry data to improve adherence to breast cancer pathways.
Kern, L. M., Edwards, A. M., Pichardo, M., & Kaushal, R. (2015). Electronic health records and health care quality over time in a federally qualified health center. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 22 (2), 453-458.
Sharma, R., Shulman, L. N., & James, T. (2017). The future of quality improvement in breast cancer: patient-reported outcomes.
Wu, Y., Fan, J., Peissig, P., Berg, R., Tafti, A. P., Yin, J., ... & Burnside, E. S. (2018, March). Quantifying predictive capability of electronic health records for the most harmful breast cancer. In Medical Imaging 2018: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment (Vol. 10577, p. 105770J). International Society for Optics and Photonics.
