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Automation Of Health Care : The Heart Of The Hippocratic Oath

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Automation of Health Care Maximizing successful patient outcomes is the heart of the Hippocratic Oath. To treat one’s illness to the best of a physician’s ability while preserving a patient’s privacy is the foundation of health professionals and health care institutions strategic intent. While this oath is one of the oldest binding documents in history its principles are still held sacred today (Tyson, 2001). The use of this oath or a modern version of it, with graduating medical professionals, is common. Taking this oath would suggest that as new technologies become readily available and help improve outcomes it is incumbent on the physician to embrace its adoption. Castillo, Martinez-Garcia and Pulido (2010) identified physicians have been slow to embrace electronic systems which are capable of improving patient outcomes and lowering the cost of conducting business. Automation of information includes computerized physician prescription, computerized physician order entry, electronic medical records, electronic alerts, automated decision support, and electronic capture of clinical data that enables service quality improvement.. With automation comes a new level of challenges surrounding adoption, security, training and integration of standards and systems. Health care is becoming automated. Automation is not limited to the infrastructure surrounding the health care institution. Procedures can now occur with a surgical unit on one side of the world while the

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