The National Football League will be adopting EMR technology
for all 32 teams over a two-season period.
The implementation goal makes the players’ medical records completely
portable from handheld devices on the field to the workstation in the hospital
or doctor’s office. Portable records
allow team and personal physicians to track the players’ injury and general
medical history. This is particularly
helpful should a player happen to get traded to another team.
The NFL’s use of electronic medical record software should
greatly improve the quality of medical care in the event of a concussion; wireless
technology will prove to be helpful if a player gets injured on the road. Off-field physicians can view submitted a video
clips of the game or practice that illustrate exactly how injury occurred, enabling
them to provide the appropriate care needed to treat the specific injury. The NFL currently uses a manual-entry electronic
injury reporting system which they plan to synch with the new EMR
technology. Tracking head and spine
injuries through electronic medical records will help neurologists better
understand the effects and consequences of repeated concussions in professional
athletes.
EMR has recently been fully integrated with sports medicine to help physicians do consultations even when they are not physically present on the scene. Alongside the new technology is the cloud computing that enables doctors to diagnose the athlete's condition through his wireless gadget, and save data to the hospital's main record system. Five years ago, who would have thought that technology could “run long” and get a “touchdown” in both medical and football field.
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