Introduction to Electronic Health Records

Electronic Health Records or EHRs are medical records about a person that are stored digitally, they are also sometimes referred to as EMRs or Electronic Medical Records. EHRs often include a patients demographics, medical history, allergy's, immunizations, lab results, radiology images, billing, and any other medically pertinent information about a person.
EHRs are not heavily used in the US today, many of our doctors offices and hospitals have not implmented new technologies, they operate much the same way as they have for the past 50 years. This is in spite of the benefits of less medical errors, lower cost of care, and easier access to record across multiple sites to makes treating the patient easier and reduced duplicate work. One thing that must be done is to insure that this information is secure. If compromised the information contained in an EHR could identify someone for the rest of their life. In this blog I will attempt to explain some of the drawbacks and benefits to EHRs. I will also try a couple of the ones available to the public free of charge.