Electronic Medical Records on Google Wave?

There are plenty of initiatives with a mission to create a comprehensive, cheap, easy-to-use EMR system, but everyone has to face a lot of problems and issues so whenever we see a simple, free and nice example, it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jonathan A. Lipton, MD, Cardiology Resident and Research Fellow in Rotterdam started an experiment in Google Wave to see whether that platform is suitable for creating a database of the electronic records of a virtual patient. And to be honest, it looks fine at first glance. Though search might be a barrier.

This wave is meant to “try out” a patient record in the service. For comments it would be good to use a different fontsize (8) and highlight (lightgray). Also, please share the comment boxes to limit the cluttering! The patient (Mr J. Doe) seems the ideal candidate, especially with regard to patient confidentiality issues. Read more about him on his wikipedia page.

Questions have been raised regarding security; the main topic (Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Medical Information Systems: Is Wave the future of electronic medical records? ) had some comments on this; apparently it’s possible to install the wave infrastructure on any intranet, so it could be done within a closed environment such as a hospital or a company. I don’t know how secure the sharing functions are, so I would be hesitant to use Googles version for secure information.

For a little bit of sarcasm, please see Rob Lamberts’ recent entry on Kevin, MD: What if blogs were run like a paper medical record system?

Thankfully, the Internet is what it is — not at all like medical records systems. We have instant information, instant access to data, and can share opinions and ideas rapidly. Would it be possible to construct a medical record system that did the same? Would it be possible to use the information system you are using right now to make patients records more accurate and accessible?