ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS: AN URGENT NEED DURING THE PANDEMIC?

On 2 January 2021, the bulletin of the Mexican Senate published a note about the need to create a system of electronic health records for all establishments offering medical services in the country. In this way, information would be generally available for making better diagnoses and for improving the handling of patients. It would also be of great use in epidemiological clinical trials.

Electronic health records would also make for more effective monitoring of clinical trials in the development of new medicines, reducing mobility and the attendant risks generated by the COVID-19 public health crisis. Best of all, the real time circulation of information would translate into lower operating costs and shorter time spans, to the great benefit of research generally.

Official standard NOM-024-SSA3-2010 outlines the functional objectives and methodology to which electronic health record systems must adhere in order to ensure their interoperability, confidentiality, safety, and modes of processing and interpretation. It serves as a guide for the development of electronic tools designed to handle personal health records.

This endeavor to organize national health information and make it readily available constitutes a strategy to improve both current and future conditions for detecting and predicting needs, determining and reducing costs, and, as a result, improving both the public and private health systems in Mexico.

Sources: <http://comunicacion.senado.gob.mx/index.php/informacion/ boletines/50049-exigen-expediente-clinico-digital-obligatorio.html>; <http://www.dof.gob.mx/normasOficiales/4151/salud/salud.htm>.

Written by Dr. Carmen de la Rocha D. in Plant Biotechnology, CINVESTAVIrapuato -Master of Science in Biochemical Engineering, ITC -Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Science, IBERO, León -Su-pervisor of the Department of Development CidVID -Professor of Subject B, CUCS UdeG Member of the National System of Researchers, level I.