Electronic Medical Records and Safety Essay Example for Free

Electronic Medical Records and Safety Essay The article titled â€Å"Computer Security Experts Perspective on Electronic Medical Records† presents the views of an Information Technology (IT) security expert, Troy Thomas, on electronic medical records (EMR). Thomas is the Chief Security and Privacy Officer for KeyCorp which is the parent company of Key Bank. Thomas has a bachelors degree in Computer Information Sciences from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH. Thomas asserts that the medical industry is slowly becoming computerized and, eventually, electronic medical records will be the norm. He points out that, however, getting from a highly distributed, paper-based model to a fully computerized EMRs model will be challenging. Changing to a more computerized EMRs model will introduce risks that the current paper-based model does not have and will solve some of the inherent risks associated with the current model. The current paper-based model inherently has the following risks: records are susceptible to fire, flood, mold, termites, decay, fading of ink, and misplacement of an entire folder or subsections. Paper records are easily copied or stolen, easily accessed by office personnel or people who just happen to be near an unattended folder of medical records. An EMRs model inherently has the following risks: computer equipment can fail or break, technology changes quickly, and information stored a long time ago may not be easily accessed at a future date. Information that was once stored can become inaccessible; information can be accessed by unauthorized individuals. Electronic information can be altered. Electronic components do not react well to fire, water, dust, dirt, humidity, being dropped, or being abruptly unplugged. To mitigate these inherent risks, modern computer centers have strict environmental controls to ensure that computer equipment is run in an optimal environment and is backed up and available at an alternative site (for disaster recovery purposes) and has proper security controls deployed to ensure that information can be accessed by authorized personnel only. Technology controls exist that can prohibit information from  being altered. For example, there are direct access storage devices that allow information to be written once and read many times. The inherent risks of the paper-based model and the EMRs model are vastly different but mitigating controls exist that can adequately address the basic inherent risks described thus far. Typical, practicing physicians, however, cannot be expected to set up a dedicated computer center with all of the environmental, phy sical, and logical access controls that are needed to adequately safeguard their patient records. Therefore, for true EMRs to be really secure, a model or protocol is needed whereby physicians store their patients medical records at a reputable and secure data center that offers the physicians an outsourced service for accessing and storing EMRs. Unfortunately, a centralized computing model introduces new inherent risks: for example, are the outsource agencies reputable and can they be trusted with patient medical record information? With medical record information coming in from multiple physicians, a unique patient identification number would be needed so that records could be appropriately combined within patient files. With so much information in one place, clear controls would be needed to ensure that the people accessing the information receive only the information that is truly needed. Ensuring that quality information is captured and maintaining patient privacy will be the most challenging aspects of EMRs. Computers dont improve quality. However, computers can make quality issues and mistakes much more visible and potentially harmful. The author highlighted that the EMRs journey will probably parallel some of the issues that exist with electronic voting where so many questions such as whether society can trust the vendors who sell the voting equipment. Can a vote be altered after it has been cast? How does society effectively centralize a highly decentralized model? Can foreign governments hack American voting equipment and influence an election? How is a persons voting history stored and secured? In the end, EMRs will be a reality in the healthcare industry. The benefits of centralized electronic patient medical records outweigh the risks associated with changing the model. Ultimately, it is a question of trust, not technology. Will physicians trust their patients to stay with them when their patient medical records are more easily transferred to another doctor? Will patients trust that their medical records are appropriately safeguarded against inappropriate access and that the information contained within their records is accurate and of high quality? Ultimately, Thomas believes the answer to these questions is yes in the long run.

No Accidents in Jack Londons To Build a Fire Essays -- London To Buil

As the title implies, Jack London's 1908 short story contains within its narrative a literal set of sequential directions on how "To Build a Fire." London extends this sequential conceit to his fatidic vision of the universe. Unlike the dog in the story, who can rely on its pure-bred arctic instinct as it navigates through the dangerous tundra, the anonymous man possesses a duller, myopic instinct which is unable foresee the consequentiality of the environment. This instinctual flaw in mankind (relative to that of a husky) is a given, but the man fails to compensate by integrating intellectuality into his journey. Were he to use all his resources efficiently, as the dog does, the man could anticipate the chain of events that leads to his demise, and then alter his literal and figurative course. Such a deconstruction of a pre-ordained universe is possible, London suggests, since the reader is made aware - through parallelism, choice wording, and other stylistic and suspen seful devices - of the subtle ways in which seemingly disconnected events are causally-linked. London prompts an investigation into the motifs of linkage in the first two sentences by crafting a landscape of connections, layers, and progression: Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high-earth bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. (462) The care which London takes to produce a conjunctive atmosphere is delicate but insistent. The adverbial and prepositional clauses - "when the m... ...ight, old hoss; you were right'" (477). He certainly was right. Works Cited and Consulted "Existentialism." The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed. New York: Dell, 1994. Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan: Utah State U P, 1966. Rpt. In Jack London: Essays in Criticism. Ed. Ray Wilson Ownbey. Santa Barbara:Â   Peregrine, 1978. 13-30. Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne, 1974. London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 6th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 118-29. McElroy, Davis Dunbar. Existentialism and Modern Literature. Westport: Greenwood, 1968. Perry, John. Jack London: An American Myth. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981. Walcutt, Charles Child. Jack London. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1966.

Pros and cons of tourism in Windsor Essay

Introduction Tourism is the world’s largest industry and creator of jobs across national and regional economies. Researches show that in 2006 tourism will generate nearly 11. 7 % of GDP and 225 million jobs in the world-wide economy. Today, tourism is one of the largest industries in today’s world economy and is a great source of foreign exchange for many developing countries, whose major assets are their natural resources. At the same time, it is the environmental quality of a place that will determine the success of the tourism industry, since it is the main attraction for tourists. It is estimated that the number of global tourists will continue to rise over the next twenty years. The rate of growth will properly increase as people become wealthier and have more spare time. Tourism has been increasing significantly in the past years for many reasons such as: Air transport destinations have developed throughout the world, with more regional airports.   Airfares have become increasingly affordable People have more money to spend on holidays.   The growth of package tours to all parts of the world has made organizing holidays much easier. There is an increased awareness of a wider range of places because of holiday’s programs on television and travel reports in newspapers.   Many parts of the world have developed holiday destinations or special attractions because they organize that tourism is important to the local economy. As well as having larger incomes, a lot of people have more leisure time than in the past. Most fulltime employment in developed countries today includes paid holidays (normally around three weeks per year). In addition, the working week is shorter than it used to be, with many now enjoying a full weekend free from work. There are also increasing numbers of peoples working part-time (especially in retail businesses) or in self-employment who are able to enjoy even more leisure time if they choose to. Perhaps the most significant boost to tourism has been the development of low-cost, long-distance air travel. This allows previously distant locations to be reached in ever-shorter times. In 1934, for instance, a flight from London to Bangkok in Thailand took eight days and involved no fewer than sixteen stops in between! By 202 the same flight could be made directly in only ten hours. It is not only traveling time that has been reduced. As air craft have been designed to carry more and more passengers, the cost of air travel has also fallen dramatically. For instance, the 1934 flight from London to Bangkok carried just eleven passengers who each paid the modern equivalent pf almost i 8,000. By 2002, long-distance aircraft typically carried around 380 people and the cost of a London to Bangkok ticket on a scheduled airline was around i 600. Such dramatic changes have opened up new destinations to a wider cross-section of society. In addition, isolated locations are making them selves accessible by building airports in order to make money from tourism. With new super-airliners (capable of carrying 550 passengers) being developed, it seems that air travel will continue to speed the growth of global tourism. There have also been growing concerns that tourism can also have negative effects on LEDCs, especially on the environment and the way local people live. Concerns about the environment: Vegetation is cut down and wild animals are killed during the building of large holiday resorts.   Too much water is used in some areas. Each visitor can use up to 1800 liters of water a day.   Increased building changes the look of an area and places become urbanized, losing there natural beauty. Concerns about the local people:   Working conditions are often poor   Young people may be encouraged to move away from their families to work in tourism.   Wages in many sectors of the tourists industry are low, and local people may be exploited. It is estimated that the number of global tourists will continue to rise over the next 20 years. The rate of growth will probably increase as people become wealthier and have more spare time. Tourism has been increasing rapidly in the past years. The reasons for growth of global tourism are for many reasons which are: Air transport destinations have developed throughout the world, with more regional airports. Airfares have become increasingly affordable. People have more money to spend on holidays.   The growth of package tours to all parts of the world has made organizing holidays much easier.   There is an increase awareness of wider range of places because of holiday programs on television and travel reports in newspapers. Many parts of the world have developed holiday’s destinations or special attractions because they recognize that tourism is important to the local economy. This is a bar chart shows the number of tourism and the how much it increased from 2004 to 2005. We can see that every year there are millions of tourists visiting Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Middle East from all around the world. This is an advantage as it provides and creates millions of jobs in hotels, airports, supermarkets and money to the local people, this results in more money investment that benefits the country. This is called sustainable development which has an enormous benefit to the country. We can see through this table that tourism brings lots of money from millions of tourists. Tourism is increasing rapidly since 1990 to 2002. We can also see how much money these countries earn from tourism. This table shows that tourism has increased the most in the Middle East by 10% and America has decreased by 6. 5%. In this project I am going to be investigating the effects and benefits of tourism on the environment of Windsor and briefly viewing the attractions in Windsor and bring to light how important tourism is now in our modern society and what makes tourism so important. I am also going to be examining the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in Windsor castle. Many tourists from all around the world come to the UK to visit Windsor as it an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. A Royal home and fortress for over 900 years, the Castle remains a working palace today I chose Windsor Castle as a place to study because it is a good location for my study as it is a honey pot with many people visiting every year because of its attractions. Windsor Castle is located in the city of London in Campden Hill Road. Within the Castle complex there are many additional attractions, including the Drawings Gallery, Queen Mary’s dolls’ house, and the fourteenth-century St. George’s Chapel, the burial place of ten sovereigns and setting for many Royal weddings. Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace. Visitors can also see the Semi State rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour. This is a brief map showing Windsor and Eton central station and other attractions This is a detailed map which shows Windsor Castle in the UK and its surroundings. It also shows car parks, roads, nearby towns and transport links. The twenty-nine circled numbers are numbers that represent attractions such as changing of the guard, Lego land Windsor and many more which are all listen below which tourist’s might want to visit. Hypothesis †I predict that tourism brings more benefit to Windsor than problems† Benefit:   Brings more money to the local people More jobs facilities. I assembled the flow of traffic into and out of Windsor Riverside station on the main road leading into Windsor called Thames Street because I wanted to see the volume and type of traffic coming into and leaving the town at different times, both at 10:49 am until 10:54 and again at 02:00 to 02:05 afternoon. The reason I did this so to ensure that my information is accurate. By recording the type of transport, I will be able to make some conclusions about the effects tourism on Windsor 10:49 to 11:49 At this point we can see that the number of cars and commercial vehicles are similar. This indicates that the more tourists there is the more work is available this tells us that the more there are Tourists the more Windsor Castle is benefiting. 02:00 to 03:00 This graph tells us that the amount of commercial vehicles that are leaving is more then those that are entering. 2. Site Evaluation I have evaluated four different positions in Windsor which are:   Outside Windsor StationOutside Windsor Castle By the River Thames indsor Central Station (new shopping Centre) For every different area listed above I have measured the amount of level noise, air quality natural vegetation, amount of litter and condition of pavements. When I gathered the information I am going to present the information in a bar chart, my scale is going to be out of four. One is excellent two is good three is satisfactory and four is unsatisfactory. The reason I have collected this information is to test the impact of tourism on the quality of environment in Windsor. I also choose four different areas of Windsor so that I can work out and average on Windsor environment. 3. Questionnaires When I visited Windsor I had two questionnaires which I have deigned, one that was designed for local residents and one for visitors. I randomly and informally questioned people that were going passed. The reason I did this was to obtain information and opinions from visitors and local residents. Local residents questionnaire TICK THE APPROPRIATE BOX Visit Work Why are you in Windsor? No Yes Is your job related to tourism? Pollutes the air in Windsor How does tourism affect you? Hard to shop or go out in the peak day House prices become expensive What are the negative effects of tourism? Traffic congestions increase ?Brings money to the local people What are the positive effects of tourism? Better services to the local people.   

Interpersonal Communication Symbolic Interactionism And...

Interpersonal communication is described as two or more people exchanging information through verbal and non-verbal messages. â€Å"God gave us the gift of communication so we could get close to others† (Griffin, 1987, p. 10). There are various theories on interpersonal communication two of which will be discussed in this paper, Symbolic Interactionism and Social Penetration. One theory is based on verbal and non-verbal communication and the other is based on how communication can help each of us develop deeper relationships. We practice both theories on a daily basis, whether we realize it or not. This paper will look how each theory is used in our daily lives, how each theory helps us to gain better understanding of our relationships, and how each theory ties into our biblical worldview. Symbolic Interactionism is the â€Å"ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react† (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). George Herbert Mead, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, developed this theory. He believed â€Å"that our thoughts, self-concept, and the wider community we live in are created through communication, verbal and non-verbal† (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). There are â€Å"three core principles of symbolic interaction: meaning, language, and thinking† (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). The meaning is â€Å"humans act toward people and things according to the meanings they assign to those people or things† (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 55). Language â€Å"arises out of the socialShow MoreRelatedAnalyzing The Movie Divergent Essay1640 Words   |  7 Pagesthe movie â€Å"Divergent.† While watching Divergent I found that communication between characters is key, and I will be comparing how those characters such as T obias Eaton (Four) and Beatrice Prior use certain communication theories while interacting with one another during the film. Theories that will be covered and analyzed while using examples from the film include Social Penetration Theory by Altman and Taylor, and Symbolic Interactionism Theory by Mead and Cooley. Despite the different thoughts andRead MoreThe Key Theories Of Interpersonal Communication1824 Words   |  8 Pagesinformation society caused dramatic changes in the public consciousness, providing the rapid development of the theory of interpersonal communications and its active putting into practice. Supported by the powerful research base, effective interpersonal communication makes an individual’s life bright and complete. This paper explores several theories of interpersonal communication, illustrating some issues with own examples. Combined with collected during the semester data, theoretical issues suggestRead MoreThe Importance of Demography to Development11 868 Words   |  48 Pagesthe fundamental laws of social relationships, institutions, etc. It generally concerns itself with the social rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, and institutions, and includes the examination of the organization and development of human social life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. Most sociologistsRead MoreTraditional African Family19679 Words   |  79 Pagestime needed and the appropriate Introduction Sociological perspectives page references from Sociology Themes and Chapter 1 Social stratification Perspectives. (Clicking on the ‘handout’ button will Chapter 2 Sex and gender take you Chapter 3 directly to ethnicity and nationality The Race, the appropriate handout.) handout can Poverty be copied for the class. then to and social exc lusion Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Health, medicine and the body The lesson plans are designed to be flexible. They Chapter 6 CrimeRead MoreContemporary Issues in Management Accounting211377 Words   |  846 Pagesinvestments. He is the author of more than eighty-five articles, published in such journals as The Accounting Review; Journal of Computer Security; Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis; ACM Transactions on Information and System Security; Communications of the ACM; Accounting Organizations and Society; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy; Journal of Business Finance and Accounting; Computer Security Journal; Managerial and Decision Economics; and Management Accounting Research. Dr. Gordon