Electronic medical records in the american health system: Challenges and lessons learned

Abstract

Electronic medical records have been touted as a solution to many of the shortcomings of health care systems. The aim of this essay is to review pertinent literature and present examples and recommendations from several decades of experience in the use of medical records in primary health care, in ways that can help primary care doctors to organize their work processes to improve patient care. Considerable problems have been noted to result from a lack of interoperabili-ty and standardization of interfaces among these systems, impairing the effective collaboration and information exchange in the care of complex pa-tients. It is extremely important that regional and national health policies be established to assure standardization and interoperability of systems. Lack of interoperability contributes to the frag-mentation of the information environment. The electronic medical record (EMR) is a disruptive technology that can revolutionize the way we care for patients. The EMR has been shown to improve quality and reliability in the delivery of healthcare services when appropriately implemented. Care-ful attention to the impact of the EMR on clinical workflows, in order to take full advantage of the potential of the EMR to improve patient care, is the key lesson from our experience in the deploy-ment and use of these systems.