Public Health Behind The Scenes

Healthcare in the US is becoming increasingly digitized. Mobile health or mHealth is a rapidly expanding area, where cell phone apps and wireless devices with sensors collect a person's health data. Hospitals are moving away from paper records. At UNC for example, your electronic records can be accessed by the doctor treating you, or by yourself if you log onto myChart. It's now possible for doctors to issue electronic prescriptions, and it might not just be possible, but mandatory. As of March, New York is the first state to not only ban paper prescriptions, but penalize any doctors that use them. So where is this all heading? What is a possible future for our healthcare in the context of technology? To answer this question, we looked overseas to a small Baltic country that is so tech savvy, it has been nicknamed "The Digital Society", Estonia. To do this, we had the help of Elle Law who is half Estonian and holds dual citizenship in the US and Estonia. Law is also a UNC alum and her main interest is public