The technology committee at your medical center has been asked to...

The technology committee at your medical center has been asked to look at current applications within the facility that generate data streams to determine which applications should feed into patient records. Some devices such as glucometers and other point-of-care testing devices automatically feed results into the patient's electronic health record. Other devices that track fitness for example, are heavily used outside of the medical center but have not been linked with health records. As the APRN representative on the committee, you have been asked to provide your expert opinion on the integration of these additional data streams.

Discussion Points

1. Which types of body sensors, tracking devices, and applications would provide valuable information to nurses and other healthcare professionals when providing care to a patient? Discuss the pros and cons of the value of each item vis-a-vis EHRs.
2. What relationships do you see between these types of data streams and the ability to inform and shape healthcare policy in your medical center?
3. Describe the relationship between the policy at your organization and the inclusion of additional data streams into electronic health records. How do individual hospitals stream their EHR data into big data sets? How does national healthcare policy support, or not support, the inclusion of additional data streams into electronic health records? Into big data findings?
4. Discuss how nurse-sensitive data can be used to create health policy at the state or national level.
5. Describe ethical and security issued involved in including patients' personal information in EHRs.