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Week Two: Individual Reflection Paper
Allscripts EHRs in Cuba
Around the world, electronic health records (EHRs) are being implemented to improve patient care, reduce health care expenses, and fundamentally change the way in which healthcare providers practice medicine. Now that Washington has begun to dismantle its trade embargo with Cuba, new opportunities arise for Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (Allscripts) to sell their products and solutions.
Allscripts is health information technology (HIT) company providing physician practices, hospitals, and other healthcare providers with electronic health record and practice management technology, including electronic prescribing, care management and revenue cycle management software. An electronic health record is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It contains a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory and test results, and more. One of the key features of an EHR is the ability to share health information across multiple health care organizations. Another key feature of an EHR is the ability to improve patient care, care coordination, practice efficiencies, and patient outcomes—most important, costs savings. So, what makes Cuba an ideal overseas market for EHR companies? Cuba is Interested In EHRs Cuba started building a national strategy for a universal health system using information and communication technologies in 1965. Vital statistics and patient data transmitted by hand or over the phone. As technology improved over the next 30 years, microprocessors and computers integrated into the process. In 1992, Cuba founded the national health telematics network know as INFORMED with the intent to lower the cost of healthcare. From these initial