What is Electronic Health Records?

Electronic records are one of the most important research subjects in healthcare information systems field. This is because they are very important to provide cheap, correct, and safe healthcare service. The report of the Institute of Medicine (2007) can be seen as a good evidence for the importance of electronic records in hospitals. According to the report, the main reason of many adverse drug events and medical errors is conclusion of poor information exchange processes between patients and providers.

There are many different wordings used for keeping these records electronically. Although the terms Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Electronic Health Record (EHR), and Personal Health Record (PHR) are sometimes used interchangeably, they are definitely not homonym. PHR is keeping health history by the user himself and make it electronically accessible for anyone who has access authority. This history consists of the health and medical data which is the collection of various sources such as EMRs and EHRs. EMRs and EHRs are recorded, used and edited by healthcare practitioners or authorized personnel. EMR is subset of EHR. While EMRs provide an electronic record of diagnosis, EHRs are designed to hold information about all aspects of patients’ wellbeing and provide framework to share this information between healthcare organizations and laboratories.

Information technology offers the unlimited complexity of information in the ability of users to manage information. This information is being developed with the aim of providing new systems to allow them to use effective decisions. These days, this information can be used in health organizations and institutions of information systems, management services, storage of patient data, diagnosing the disease, disease management and treatment, physicians and support decision related to the patient, nurses and guidance in the work to be made by the physician, signal interpretation, laboratory services, such as medication monitoring process and interpret the warning benefit in various fields. In the health sector, the management of health services, the registration information, storing, sharing and management of information technology use in developing day by day and shows growth. Working initially at reducing paperwork, and managerial decision aims to improve the cash flow of the current Electronic Patient Records (Electronic Health Records (EHR)) and allows the recording of all kinds of information that is provided throughout the patient’s life.

Maryam Ghalandari