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The EMR Is Dead, Long Live EHR

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Recently, a colleague pointed out that the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) published a definition of Electronic Health Record and, essentially, killed the Electronic Medical Record or EMR. The reasoning:

“The word ‘health’ covers a lot more territory than the word ‘medical.'”

Let’s validate the logic with a quick trip to Dictionary.com and compare the definitions of both medical and health:

Medical – noun

– Something done or received in regard to the state of one’s health, as a medical examination.

Health – noun

– The general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health.

Makes sense, so congratulations! Chalk one up for simplifying healthcare. One less healthcare acronym we have to remember and explain!

EMR and EHR created confusion. From healthcare standards to all the various applications, healthcare has its own alphabet. Maybe part of the new Meaningful Use regulations should be for every new acronym introduced at least three have to be eliminated.

Now, what will happen to our friends at EMRandEHR.com? Or, EMRandHIPAA.com? Will they change their names?

Enough fun, I guess, so what is an EHR according to the ONC?

“EHRs focus on the total health of the patient—going beyond standard clinical data collected in the provider’s office and inclusive of a broader view on a patient’s care. EHRs are designed to reach out beyond the health organization that originally collects and compiles the information. They are built to share information with other health care providers, such as laboratories and specialists, so they contain information from all the clinicians involved in the patient’s care.”

Essentially, EHR takes a more horizontal view of the patient’s care (across the cycle or spectrum of care) rather than what an EMR did which was a more vertical view (within one physician’s care).

Take note. Drop EMR from your vocabulary. It’s EHR. It’s more, well, meaningful.

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Jon Mertz

Jon Mertz serves as the editor at Health Standards and vice president of marketing at Corepoint Health. Jon is an advocate for strong patient engagement in their health and understands the key roles health literacy, patient data, and healthcare interoperability play in developing a better health care model. Follow Jon on Twitter.

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  • Nah, I think I’ll stick with EMR. Especially since 2 of my sites have EMR in them. Although, my latest case was made when I asked a doctor that blogs with me if he wanted to use EMR or EHR. He said, “Most doctors use EMR, so let’s use EMR.” Add in the spell check factor of EHR getting changed to HER and it’s a pretty clear case that EMR should prevail.

    Thanks for the links on my blog. In my blogs case, I like to use both just to anger those that are so worried about which you use.

  • Hey, John! Fair argument and perspective. It will be interesting to see if both terms, or one or the other are picked up in the shuffle of health IT initiatives over the next few years. Perhaps for MDs, it will be the EMR they reference. I think it really depends on which direction health IT decides to take… Will it be the HIE level (physician focused; long live EMR), PHR level (patient focused) or both?

  • Well, the reality is that when a doctor says EMR they actually mean EHR. There’s little doubt that what most people define as EHR is the future of what will happen with healthcare IT. Although, watch for doctors and many others to continue saying EMR with the assumption that it includes all the features that more aptly apply to the term EHR.

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