Rather than turn a practice upside-down with a "big bang" implementation or replace old workflows with entirely new ones, executives must survey and understand those clinical areas where the needs are real and the value of an electronic medical record to clinicians is immediate and obvious. For these and other reasons, obstetrics may be the best place to test an electronic medical record.

Dr Park and her team have had their electronic medical record (EMR) for almost 2 years. Throughout this time, they have been recording questions they hope their EMR might help them answer. These questions have arisen from practice-management concerns, proposed qualityimprovement initiatives, and old-fashioned clinical curiosity. They are wondering how to begin using the EMR to provide some answ...

Developing quality indicators (QI) for national purposes (eg, public disclosure, paying-for-performance) highlights the need to find accessible and reliable data sources for collecting standardised data. The most accurate and reliable data source for collecting clinical and organisational information still remains the medical record. Data collection from electronic medical records (EMR) would b...

Health information technology (HIT) is engineered to promote improved quality and efficiency of care, and reduce medical errors. Healthcare organizations have made significant investments in HIT tools and the electronic medical record (EMR) is a major technological advance. The Department of Veterans Affairs was one of the first large healthcare systems to fully implement EMR. The Veterans Heal...

Determining the accuracy of the electronic medical record (EMR) is vital to the progress of practice-based research. The aim of this study was to determine the agreement between the EMR and other sources of signalment data. Data were gathered during direct observation of small animal consultations in eight veterinary practices. Breed, age, sex and neuter status were recorded, where available, f...