title: The design and implementation of a ubiquitous personal health record system for South Africa.
abstract: Doctors can experience difficulty in accessing medical information of new patients. One reason for this is that, the management of medical records is mostly institution-centred. The lack of access to medical information may affect patients in several ways, such as: new medical tests may be carried out at a cost to the patient, and doctors may prescribe drugs to which the patient is allergic. This paper presents the design and implementation of a ubiquitous Personal Health Record system for South Africa. The design was informed by a literature review of existing personal health record standards, applications and the need to ensure patient privacy. Three medical practices in Port Elizabeth were interviewed with the aim of contextualizing the personal health record standards from the literature study. The findings of this research provide an insight as to how patients can bridge the gap created by institution-centred management of medical records.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kyazze
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wesson
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Naude
mesh_terms: D016494:Computer Security; D003219:Confidentiality; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D062527:Meaningful Use; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D013019:South Africa; D014584:User-Computer Interface