These modalities and venues of communication may entail benefits and challenges to both consumers and providers. The one communication modality that sticks out the most and that is used in health care is the Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
According to "Benefits of EHRs" (2013), “an electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital version of a paper chart that contains all of a patient’s medical history from one practice. An EMR is mostly used by providers for diagnosis and treatment. An electronic medical record contains the standard medical and clinical data gathered in one provider’s office. Electronic health records (EHRs) go beyond the data collected in the provider’s office and include a more comprehensive patient history.”
One benefit to patients is that they will not have to rely on their memory to remember every aspect of their entire medical history. Once documented in the patients’ electronic medical record, the information does not go away unless it is deleted from the electronic medical record. Even then, once deleted it remains in the patients history tab of the electronic medical record.
Just like with any other form of communication, there is a risk of a breach in confidentiality. Most privacy and security risks apply to both paper and electronic records. However, the way that these are exploited and can be mitigated is different. Having a good understanding of risks is important to ensure that an organization makes informed choices regarding the privacy and security policies and procedures that they apply.
Ways confidentiality can be breached can include unauthorized access to the electronic medical record. An example of this would be if an employee at a health care facility noticed that a neighbor or friend was recently admitted to the hospital and the employee took it upon themselves to look the neighbor or friend up and see what they were in