"Psychotherapy Gets Extra Privacy and Security Measures"

As of February 17th, patients do not have to worry about a breach in privacy due to added technology or electronically sent information. Not only are will the standards of HIPAA be raised, but their is an even stronger provisions for psychotherapy records.

The stigma that follows patients seeking psychiatric treatment and depending on their mental stability at the time is extremely harmful and very dangerous if information is exposed. Not only for social reasons, but economical to being denied a job and a multitude of other negative consequences.

The advancements in psychotherapy and getting the greater public to understand how important and sensitive this matter is are great. Even in the military, when a point in time a commanding officer could get any and all records just 20 years ago, now we are at a point where their records are almost if not just as private as civilians.

Some benefits that come with this new law for the psychotherapy world are:

• Implement a process to explore segmenting particularly sensitive patient records (such as mental health records)
• Provide a notice to the patient when privacy is breached
• Protect well-established psychotherapist-patient privilege currently recognized under federal and state law
• Incorporate HIPAA Privacy and Rule Standards where possible, including with regard to psychotherapy notes and other sensitive patient information

Electronic health records network can become a true benefit concerning patient care cost and quick accessibility, I am grateful that is was not at the cost of protection of the patients.

http://www.apa.org/releases/hitech.html

The Implications of fMRI

Functional MRI gives the ability to directly observe brain functions, which open further exploration into the way the brain interacts closer to real time or the more active part of the brain. The potential to decode short-term memory can have other implications.

Having a better understanding in the how the brain is involved with memory storage can lead to further studies involving in treatment of PTSD or even coming closer to a cure for Althemizers.

The first human scan achieved on a MRI was in 1977. This technology has influenced medicine in a such positive way in individual cases and on a grand scale in the medical world. Psychologist have been able to make connections to brain activity with human behavior due to the images developed via MRI and the development of psychotropic medication. With the fMRI being able to depict the active part of the brain, the territory of exploration has become wider and possibilities even greater.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/02/20/decoding.short.term.memory.with.fmri http://www.fmri.columbia.edu/fmri.htm

The Emotional Robot

Autistic children tend to have developmental setbacks with social and relationship skills. These children can overcome these hurtles with extreme care and attention, modeling someone possessing effective social skills. This can become every time consuming for the parents and because it is a round the clock job can become very expensive as well.

With that in mind, it is understandable and every encouraged (financially) the invention of robot to monitor children with autism. It could potentially make the streamline the treatment streamline and make it cost-effective. But how would the robot be able to teach the child effective social skills.

An essential part in building social skills and emotions are learning how to respond in other reactions and emotional states. Though this has been the roadblock for the development of this robot, even if the reaction is perfected, it would be impossible for the robot to have every accurate response to an autistic child, if so humans would have perfected it first.

Computers are great, but they can not replace human interaction, which is essential to anyone suffering from any type of emotional or mental disability. I could not feel safe leaving my child with a robot expecting it to know what my child needs at every moment, emotions are erratic, computers are not even designed that way. This could be an advantage for the pocket, but a true disadvantage for the child that needs no more disadvantages.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/02/17/robot.playmates.monitor.emotional.state.children.with.asd