EMR or EHR
Both EMR or EHR refers to digital files that contain detailed clinical and medical data of patients. Nowadays healthcare facilities, medical doctors and patients can have access to these digital health files in a different level.
EMR: The electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital version of the traditional paper-based medical record for an individual. The EMR usually is a medical record within a single facility, such as a doctor’s office or a clinic.
EHR: The electronic health record (EHR) is a health document that is shared among multiple healthcare facilities and doctors. The use of EHR in gradually increasing due to the fact that clinical and patient data are becoming digital and most of the mobile technology users want to have immediate access to their health records.
Is there any distinction?
It is common to use both EMR or EHR for the same topic of interest about health records. But as we already mentioned above, there is a fine line between the two terms. The distinction arises from the nature of use:
- EMR: shared within a single facility, such as a doctor’s office or a clinic
- EHR: shared among multiple healthcare facilities and doctors
But at their core value are similar and have almost a parallel frame of structure and efficiency. They are equally important for doctors and patients.
The term of EHR has overlapped EMR within academic papers and official medical publications based on its more general and inclusive description of a patient’s medical history, detailed clinical data and general information. Most healthcare providers tend to use the term EHR because it is a richer aspect of a patient’s total health status. But when a doctor is communicating with a patient, most of the times they use the term EMR, for it sounds a bit friendlier to the non-scientific ear.
In any case, both terms are used widely depending on the audience and the circumstances.
Since 1960 that EHR popped up in medical circles, it was and still is widespread throughout all fields of Healthcare Industry, such as medical technology & software vendors. EHRs and EMRs have improved the quality of treatments by filling the gap of paper medical records with the elements of speed and accuracy. Their main characteristics provide immediate access to a patient’s complete history, ability to recall, search and share various examinations within seconds. In many cases, these seconds can save lives.
As many doctors say: “The real challenge is that
the right treatment is a race against time.”
Grafimedia Advanced Solutions
Digital Health & EMR
Digital health is the combination of the Digital and Genomic Revolutions* with health, healthcare, living, society, medical technology and clinical data. The main goal of digital health is to support people’s effort to track, manage, and improve their health. Part of digital health is the process of keeping in one place all medical and health records.
In general, digital health is the field of science that develops interconnected health systems. Those systems are improving the use of computational technologies and the integration with smart devices, computational analysis techniques and communication media. The main mission of digital health is to support healthcare professionals and patients manage several medical conditions, as well as promote health and wellbeing.
Over the last decade, the volume of medical information is increasing exponentially, while the management is becoming increasingly complex. Nowadays medical data are produced on various operating systems, using protocols that most of the time cannot communicate with one another. The invaluable contribution of the DICOM3 and HL7 protocols in solving the problem is not sufficient. The easy search and fast retrieval of information are still a challenge and Grafimedia has created solutions that meet these needs.
At Grafimedia we accept this challenge.
We are a net of Health Information Technology Experts, operating in different countries. We analyze, design, develop and implement workflows for any kind and size of a healthcare facility.
Grafimedia SaaS Health IT Team approach each case individually, trying to integrate and bridge existing systems, not necessarily replace them. At the same time, we provide the best cost/performance ratio, without exceeding budgets.
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