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can be built which comprised of tumour categories and sizes along with its subsequent treatments. The case study illustrates
the importance of knowledge management especially in storing and sharing of data. Various categories of data are comprised in
patients’ digital medical record such as diagnosis details, treat- ments issued and records of appointments. These records are
also important as references for the treatment of similar condi- tions.
Figure 4.27 Knowledge management for electronic patient records FONG et al 2011
Several hazards and challenges have to be overcome to develop an effective digital database of medical history. Firstly, the
well-known SOAP procedures will be referred to schimelpfenig, 2006a, schimelpfenig 2013b:
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x Subjective: Medical nature of patients and the symp-
toms exhibited and reported.
x Objective: Diagnosis of vital conditions of patients such
as heart beats, blood pressure and other tests to identify irregularities and prescribe necessary clinical examina-
tions.
x Assessment: Summarization and analysis of the collect-
ed data as mentioned above.
x Plan: Devising the appropriate prescriptions and treat-
ments as a follow-up plan. The ultimate purpose of these procedures is to aid the diagnosis
process using information management and lay the pathway for an effective interaction between patients and medical personals.
It is often applied as a set of standardization in hospitals and clinics to systemize their medical records. Ultimately, medical
information is sensitive in nature and the storing of this data must be reliable and accurately conducted and the distribution
of the information should be regulated.
4.5 Electronic Drug Store
The chapter is concluded with a discussion on the sharing of medical data within an e-commerce medicine supplier. In fact,
the term “telemedicine” might be derived from the distribution of clinical drugs. Via technological advancement, these firms
can reach out to more patients particularly communities in far remote areas as well as patients incapable of travelling. Even
though clinical drugs must eventually be delivered to these des- tinations, the improvement of telemedicine enables medical ser-
vices to reach out to more remote locations and higher treatment efficiency through information sharing. One of the main respon-
sibilities of e-medicine distributor is in assisting the distribution and dispersion of clinical drugs based on strictly regulated pro-
cedures to comply with standards and in reducing operation ex-
150
penditure. This implies that the distribution of clinical drugs is not merely like a drug vending machine that distributes over-
the-counter drugs. Note that in this discussion, the word “dis- pensary” is omitted to avoid confusion since this term is used in
the US to describe agencies that are licensed to trade intoxicat- ing or narcotic substances such as cannabis and alcohol for clin-
ical purposes Martinez, 2000,
iversen 2003. The examination of medicines is another main practice that aims to
improve the efficiency of drugs and to reduce the unwanted side-effects of drug consumption. This practice aims to build a
database that contributes to the development of new drugs. However, perhaps the most important role of e-medicine distri-
bution is information sharing of the function and accurate pre- scription of certain drugs, information of drugs regarding its
current usage in the medical field as well as the accompanied side-effects of each drug. Besides, these websites enable direct
interaction among users and the drug distributors which enable consumers to obtain first-hand information regarding potential
side effects. In addition, the practice of recalling products, ob- taining information regarding their expiry dates or licenses ena-
bles pharmacist to be well-informed about the current drugs they handle with. For the end-users from the public, the availa-
bility of information in extensive networks means that they can inform themselves regarding the effectiveness of each drug and
prevents risks associated with the mixture of high-risk medi- cines. Drugs prescribed to patients are in turn recorded in their
medical history. Through extensive telemedicine networks, the medical records of patients are integrated into the network and
enable information sharing among doctors and pharmacists as well as to patients themselves. This also results in much con-
venience where patients can obtain the drugs required from pharmacies without the need of a written document from hospi-
tals, as pharmacists can easily retrieved this information from the network. The main concept of the establishment of e-
medicine distributors is the ability to distribute drugs irrespec- tive of time and location by referring to medical data of patients
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made available to them. The medical record enables pharma- cists to issue medicines with an authority from healthcare insti-
tutions and acknowledge the adverse effects associated with the consumption of various drugs such as allergy and reactions oc-
curred from drug mix-ups before distributing the drugs. In addi- tion, the data network informs healthcare institutions about the
insurance coverage of patients, and reminds patients to consume their prescriptions at the instructed time. In the network, the
procedures associated with diagnosis and treatments prescribed are recorded automatically. Mobile monitoring devices can be
established at the home of patients who have mobility problems such as senior citizens and blind patients. Figure 4.28 shows
that these devices and be installed like a software on computers or any devices equipped with RFID reader. The software con-
tains information about the medicines issued such as consump- tion instructions and the record of drug consumption by
patients. This illustrates that the application of e-health and e- medicine distributions doubles as a device to update patients’
drug prescriptions besides help them to obtain their medicines more conveniently. The record of medicines usage is especially
crucial in diseases outbreaks such as the spread of A H
1
N
1
in fluenza virus. The drugs inventory informs healthcare institu-
tions and pharmacies regarding the amount of stick available to meet the unexpected demands during the outbreak. The amount
of influenza vaccines must be ensured to be adequate at all times to avoid the risk of inadequate supply especially in high-
risk regions. Under telemedicine networks, drug suppliers can have a direct communication with manufacturer to initiate the
transfer of the vaccines to high-risk regions immediately when a high rate of suspected cases of influenza is reported.
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CHAPTER 5
DEPLOYMENTS OF WIRELESS NETWORKS
IN TELEMEDICINE
From the previous chapter, it has been stated that patients’ med- ical records can be obtained from different channels according
to the nature and format of these data. The information is also subject to different requirements prior to data transfer and utili-
zation. Procedures to obtain the information have been dis- cussed along with their subsequent requirements for data
transfer via e-health networks. The transfer of information such as patients’ vital signals and physical scans are different as they
are subjected to different requirements. Numerous ways in ac- quiring data result in the estimation for both immediate and
longer intervals in order to suit various health monitoring situa- tions. One of the main obligations is an effective and dependa-
ble communicative channel to support patient caring. The establishment of channels is considered via the support of spe-
cific applications to fulfil the specific requirements to comply with the nature and format of the data. As an example, the trans-
fer of X-ray radiographies is subjected to distinctive procedures in the aspect of transmission capacity compared to the transfer
of a text document that contains the information of treatment prescribed to patients. Each network possesses its own func-
tional limitation on the capacity of information transferable in
