Discussion Articles In an article d diabetes management with electronic medical records a group of researchers were trying to assess the impacts of electronic medical records in improving diabetes care. The researchers identified the following questions that guided their study. Does the use of EMR’s improve diabetes patient outcomes? The doctors in their methodology are seen to use randomized control trials to test the effect of a follow up module implemented through EMR’s versus follow up with only EMRs. The idea here was to compare one approach to the other and find out if the use of one electronic medical records on diabetic patients was actually a good course that improved care. In their method the researchers are seen to be comparing two approaches in order to test which actually yields the expected results (Varroud-Vial, 2011).

The randomized trials are done on diabetic patients within a hospital setting. Although testing and trails is an advanced methodology used in quantitative research we can still see that this research actually used it to find the impacts that the use of one approach would have on the patients. By subjecting a group of patients to EMR’s and not the other they wanted to test the validity of the statement that they had come up earlier or the research question they had identified. The methodology was quite appropriate in this study because they needed to establish the validity of the statement. Tests are carried out in scientific research in order to qualify or disqualify a given fact and this was what was used in this study.

In the second article titled Physicians and Electronic health records the authors wanted to know exactly what the use of electronic medical records by physicians was on the ground in hospitals as concerns. There were two questions proposed for this study and these asked whether the Electronic health records were available for use and secondly the degree to which the physicians used the Electronic health records. The methodology that was adopted for this study was a random survey and this involved a group of 1884 physicians in Massachusetts. The survey used structured questionnaires that required them to answer different issues as concerns addressing the two questions identified earlier. The questionnaires were then mailed to the participants. The questions assessed the following components: availability and use of HER functions, predictors of use and the relationships between HER use and physicians perceptions of medical practice (Simon, 2007).

The sample population used were physicians practicing in Massachusetts in spring 2005. The study drew a stratified random sample of about 1921 and randomly selected 1 physician per practice. An eight page survey was then developed with the questions that tackled a variety of elements as explained above. The survey was administered between June and November 2005. The initial surveys were sent through express mail. Telephone contacts were attempted in order to remind the physicians to fill the questionnaires and respond in good time. Others were given the opportunity to complete the surveys on phone. Therefore a few also completed the survey though telephone. This study therefore followed a survey approach that entailed the use of questionnaires that were completed by physicians or by the researchers who asked physicians questions on phone.

References

Simon, S. R. (2007). Physicians and Electronic health records. Retrieved May 11, 2012, from Archives of Internal medicine: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/167/5/507?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=%09+Physicians+and+Electronic+Health+Records&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

Varroud-Vial, M. (2011). Improving diabetes management with electronic medical records. Retrieved May 11, 2012, from Diabetes and Metabolism: http://www.sciencedirect.