BACKGROUND Error reduction, quality improvement and lowering of cost can all be achieved through electronic integration of healthcare providers. Proliferation of standard electronic health records/ electronic medical records (EHR/EMR) software is an essential precursor of this integration. Proliferation of EHR/EMR software has not occurred in the United States. OBJECTIVE To characterise users...

W e have been waiting for electronic medical records (EMRs) to improve chronic disease care for a long time (1). Availability of sophisticated EMR systems has enticed an increasing number of health plans and medical groups to invest resources in such systems. Many EMR systems are able to improve documentation of care, communication of clinical information across sites, and measurement of produc...

Health systems are moving to implement comprehensive electronic medical record (EMR) systems, or significant pieces of them, in the belief that EMR can be integrated into clinical practice and lead to improved patient outcomes and enhanced safety. There are substantial roadblocks to implementing EMR, including significant cost, the competency needed to implement, the political environment, orga...

Long-term care (LTC) facilities possess unique characteristics in terms of implementation and utilization of electronic medical records (EMRs). The focus of LTC is on a population requiring care encompassing all aspects associated with quality of life rather than simply acute treatment. Because this focus is of a larger scale than traditional medical facilities, the priorities in the implementa...

Hypothetical: A medical malpractice lawsuit alleges a failure to diagnose the aortic dissection that caused the sudden death of the patient. Two days before his death, the patient had visited a medical clinic, where the patient had shown normal vital signs except for a slight fever, and a mild shortness of breath. Based on the initial clinical presentation, the tentative diagnosis was pericardi...

Electronic medical records (EMRs) document the healthcare provided to the patient using both unstructured clinical notes and structured data. Typically, these records are large, containing hundreds of documents about a single patient. To navigate the vast amounts of information about a patient, current EMR applications available to physicians either attempt to proactively summarize important pa...

CONSIDER THIS IRONY OF MODERN LIFE: IN A MEDICAL CRISIS, EMERGENCY physicians would have an easier time accessing a patient’s bank account using his or her automatic teller machine card than they would finding critical medical history using his or her medical insurance card. Medical records, including crucial electrocardiograms, drug allergies, or medical conditions, are typically stored on pap...

Ensuring the security of medical records is becoming an increasingly important problem as modern technology is integrated into existing medical services. As a consequence of the adoption of electronic medical records in the health care sector, it is becoming more and more common for a health professional to edit and view a patient’s record using a tablet PC. In order to protect the patient’s pr...

While technology and legal advancements now enable health consumers to have their medical records transmitted electronically, either to the web or to a personal device (e.g., smart card), ultimately resulting in a lifetime health record, many obstacles remain in the way of that vision. So who’s afraid of electronic medical records (EMR)? Healthcare providers would prefer that EMRs remain under ...

'm committed to ensuring that all Wisconsin citizens receive quality health care. Since I took office, I have worked to lower the price of prescription drugs, help our farmers and small businesses through health care cooperatives, and preserve BadgerCare, Medical Assistance, and SeniorCare for our most vulnerable citizens despite tough budget times. However, about 30% of health care spending—up...