Your personal web based EMR system: Google Health.

All the sectors are experiencing fast paced growth boosted by the technological advancements. Use of internet has changed not only the life styles of human beings but also the way of doing business. Technology with internet has become the backbone of every organization dealing in the 21st century.

Medical sector is also not lagged behind. Introduction of technological and scientific advancement in medical sector has added more of patient health care into the scene. Introduction of EMR/EHR software based systems into the practice, software based billing services, advanced imaging technologies like PACS and DICOM, Hospital Information System etc. has brought a new era into the medical sector. All these facilities are there to help you and to value your time and money. You can easily opt for these widely available options across all the hospitals and clinics at your home province. Yet if you are looking for the service that you can use at the ease of your personal computer system and the cup of coffee, then a service like the web based EMR is something you are looking for.


So, looking for a web based health and nutrition service or a web based EMR! You might be looking for an online medical service that can suit your medical needs and health calls. Well! In such a situation a product from Google can help you lot. No it’s not the Gmail neither Orkut nor Chrome. It is Google Health, the web based EMR of your own. I said web based EMR in the sense that you can use this nice service from Google to manage your all health and nutrition related issues in the way an EMR system does. You can manage your personal health information in one place and in a systematic way. Accessing these data is even simpler than the feeding one because you can easily look for them in one specific place. This service from Google allows all the users with a Google ID and a password to own and manage a health profile by simply filing in the medical information after logging in. You can merge different health reports and x-ray reports, radiographs, ultra sound reports etc. into a centralized online Google Health profile. Medical record is the piece of information regarding your health and nutrition and complying with the HIPAA regulations you have the full right over it.


Google health apart from the ease of access comes with other benefits like the one through which it allows you to maintain up-to-date details about your physician or the doctor. Secondly, whenever you visit a new hospital or clinic you would not require doing the same paperwork again and again. Google health will help you in keeping an updated copy of your latest medical reports so that you can save your time by restraining from getting the same tests done again and again. Changing the location, changing the job would definitely not affect your medical records now onwards; you can access Google Health from a public internet café as well. Google Health acts in a way the web based EMR systems do and so helps in integration of various reports and information from different hospitals and labs in one defined place.


You don’t need to worry about the privacy of your data at Google Health. Just like the Gmail account you have, data at your Google health account would be more than safe.

Finally OSCAR goes to the Hospital:

Don’t get fascinated when I say that OSCAR for hospital. OSCAR here denotes Open Source Clinical Application Resource and not the Oscar concerned with Hollywood.

OSCAR is a free open source software product. It is a medical software product. Open Source Software products can be downloaded freely by anyone along with the codes. They can be reviewed and redesigned for further uses. OSCAR the open source medical software comes with General Public License (GPL) which ensures that it is available freely without any cost. General Public license also bestows the rights to people to develop and distribute this medical software. OSCAR was started by the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University in the year 2001. This open source medical software was brought out with the aim of producing the web based EMR support for diverse academic as well as clinical functionaries. Since its inception in 2001 it has covered many small and big cities worldwide and the user base is growing day by day. Along with this other supportive services dealing with OSCAR have also came into the scene. Support companies with services like server installation, maintenance, user training and support have grown with the growth of OSCAR use. The user base of OSCAR as of May 2009 has reached a level of 700 – 800 users in places like BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and PEI. Ontario and BC tops the list with highest number of users. This open source medical software has experienced a tremendous growth percentage of 75% in installations in the year 2008 than the previous year. It is able to maintain a same pace in 2009 also. This web based EMR product, being an open source software product, is acclaimed widely.

A standard based approach was taken in Ontario to select the web based EMR and OSCAR has proved to be better in all of them. These tests were done with the latest and strict specifications from CMS namely CMS v3.0 specification. OSCAR can be run on ASP as well as non –ASP also. In BC the implementation and the development of OSCAR is being managed by the BC OSCAR User Group. The users and the support companies form the OSCAR community and they meet to discuss on OSCAR issues at regular intervals. And the OSCAR Canada user community is the main body concerned with the community development of this web based EMR product. Currently, the updating of OSCAR is done twice a year in the months of April and October. The updating of OSCAR and other upcoming events of OSCAR are aired for the community through the Roadmap Page on the OSCAR Canada website. There are some big contributors to the project OSCAR and they are: large institutions like McMaster University, McGill, City of Toronto, OSCAR support companies, user groups and independent clinics and users.

OSCAR is one of the finest web based EMR software in the category of open source software products. It has excellent Chronic Disease Management Flow Sheets for the disease like Diabetes, Hypertension, CHF, COPD, asthma, HIV and INR. OSCAR is also equipped with Chronic Disease Management audit tools. The Chronic Disease Management Flowcharts come with added features like the customization per patient. These charts and sheets help in improved tracking of patient wise customized care. This web based EMR software also contains maternity forms, reports and audit tools, preventive care and immunization modules, enhanced prescribing, and many other up-to-date features.

Medical Software in HIS sphere:

Automated health practice management systems, e-prescribing, CAT scanners, heart rate monitoring with software are a few of the names from the medical area in the 21st technology driven century. From the patient’s personal data to the cardiographs everything has got the driving force of technological advancement. Introduction of PACS or Picture Archiving and Communication System and DICOM or Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine has changed the way of imaging in the medical practices. Similarly the introduction of EMR/EHR medical software has changed the way of medical record keeping. In most of the hospitals and clinics in EU, US or Canada you would notice the use of medical software like an EMR system in practice very well. Likewise the introduction of medical software for billing purpose is another important contribution of modern technology. Medical billing software used in billing has introduced the comfort of coordination among other medical services like lab report of patients and its coordination with proper insurance claims etc.


Medical Software is the modern technological term that has driven the medical sector to an unalterable stage of advancement. The introduction of various medical software products has changed the way of management and even the administration concerned with hospitals and clinics across EU and US. Medical software use even in health informatics like HIS is of great help. HIS or Hospital Information System is the platform covering all the medical related clinical as well as administrative sections. From the simple hospital discipline management to the management of health records, financial records, and other medical reports all are covered under this single umbrella named HIS.


Hospital Information System or simply HIS is the information system assisting all the administrative, financial and clinical aspects of a hospital or a clinic. HIS also known as CIS or Clinical Information System comprises of a comprehensive, integrated information system covering all the papered and non-papered software based clinical as well as administrative medical areas of concern. A simple HIS construction can be understood as the sphere covering the entire medical aspects from EMR systems to the software based billing services. A proper HIS is always aimed at achieving best possible support towards the health care of patients and an adequate management by deploying either medical software products or machineries along with responsible technicians/persons. Radiology information system, Laboratory Information System, PACS, etc. are the sub categories of Hospital Information System. EMR, EHR, software based billing services, insurance claims, patient care, profit drive, hospital management, administrative works all belong to the sphere of HIS.

The advantage from HIS includes well maintained decision support system in healthcare, exchange of information towards the betterment of the healthcare services, coordinating the standards of ancillary services with the primary one, enabling referring physicians and doctors to access all the studies and reports via a single user interface etc. In a nut shell a proper HIS with adequate medical software support is the demand of the time, conforming to which can rise your business in the medical sector to an incredible level.

How do you dash your medical bills!

The world is moving fast. You need to be with the speed of the business otherwise you would be out of the business. You have to tackle both the speed of technological advancements and the needs of your business. You should be able to deliver quality service that satisfies your clients or customers and at same time minimizes the cost of ancillary services. All these things are equally applicable to the medical business. Perhaps in the medical business the concern of satisfaction or the demand for the best possible health care services are more than in case of others. So, in such a situation, outsourcing the services of secondary importance is obviously a good available option to provide better health services. The service of secondary importance that is commonly outsourced in medical business is the billing service. Most of the hospitals and clinics across EU and US outsource their medical billing services to a third party service provider. It’s really a good solution towards the time management as well as increased profitability.


Outsourcing of medical billing services is a good option but you need to choose the best service provider for the same. You can make the agreement only after giving a fair look on various factors like their charges either in percentage base or in flat rates. Sometime the agreement pricing of such a service provider is found to be a blend of both the percentage and flat pricing. This is called hybrid pricing. Just after the percentages pricing the most commonly used pricing method is the hybrid one.
The very first factor that comes alive when the outsourcing of medical billing services is pronounced is the experience of the service provider. You cannot rely on a company without any experience in this field. So, you can simply ask for a list of its clients. A good list of companies will automatically denote the level of experience you should look for. Sometime companies outsmart by giving only two or three references and these two or three references actually turn out to be their hired workers who would post very favorable opinions and testimonials. Secondly you should choose the service provider for your medical billing services according to the pricing methods of your desire and requirement. Along with the pricing method the associated concern is the frequency of pricing. You should look for the frequency whether they post the charges daily or weekly or monthly. Next point of issue to evaluate the service provider is to look for the frequency of submission of claims. Transmission of claims on a daily basis is the most feasible one. Selecting the billing service provider by the status reporting frequency is another vital point of concern. The account receivable status reporting should be faster within a period of one week or within a period no longer than the time frame of 3 months. Apart from these, the customer support from the service provider be it in the technological knowledge, any monetary issue or the introduction of a new physician requiring training should be with best quality.


Finally, the service provider to whom you choose to outsource your medical billing services should be able to deliver the highest possible ROI.

5 Strategies for the proper billing software:

A proper medical billing software product in practice is something that can save your time as well as money. The medical billing software supports several health and nutrition related sectors. The primary health care service providers as well as professional such as medical administrative staff members and doctors can get the help of this software supported service. A medical billing software product can cover a number of functions in the medical health care sector. This software with various codes and levels enables physicians and doctors to have complete medical information of the patients. All the tests, reports, x-rays are registered by this software. And due to this huge importance in the medical sector, a billing software product requires a good planning which addresses the technical as well as administrative issues very well.

A 5 part strategy towards the implementation of a billing software product can really help in proper planning and working of the software product.

1. Set the vision: The first strategy is to define the vision. You need to imagine the bigger picture in a near future. You have to set the goals that you want from the installation/implementation of billing software. While setting these goals the coordination among the billing services and other health related services should be given utmost importance. There should be proper definition for each and every data coordinating analysis, planning, and monitoring. Use of data towards the achievement of quality and speed in services also should be given a good touch. Use of data derived from the billing software product into the betterment of services must be in the place.

2. Trap the opportunities: While considering the vision for your medical billing software product, you would notice different tiny or big opportunities coming your way either in technical form or in any ancillary form. Sometime outsourcing of medical billing services to a third party can prove to be worthy. Give a good look on them and trap the most suitable and efficient opportunities.

3. Look for the benefits: While implementing a medical billing software product into your medical unit, you must be able to define it as per its benefits. The first benefit that all the billing software products bear is the ease of automation. The hospital administration can simply access those data on patient or information on insurance company with a single click. The implementation of a billing software product always comes with the plus point of reducing paperwork and hefty filing systems. Reduced paperwork and hassle free access to patients’ data saves time and money. A proper billing software product always reduces the risk associated with accuracy in manual preparation of documents. A wrong documentation in billing may cause you financial losses, since insurance companies require accurate and appropriate documents for reimbursement. Without proper documents you cannot submit claims to your insurance company. So, with billing software the risk of wrong billing or slow billing can be eliminated.

4. Go with the Law: The compliance with HIPAA rules and regulation protects the confidentiality of the concerned patients. So, at the time of implementing a medical billing software product you must look for this concern of data confidentiality.

5. Select the right vendor: last but not least you should be able to find the right software vendor that meets your clinical as well financial requirements. Depending upon different factors ranging from the price tags to the customer support services, you can select a vendor as per your requirements.

By applying this simple 5 strategy plan you definitely can select and choose the best medical billing software product for your medical unit.

The best EMR Software: How to choose it wisely!

Boosted speed of communication, boosted speed of transportation, lightening fast life style is the theme of WWW dominated modern life. Yes, these are the factors adding to the fast moving modern life style. But when it comes to the health segment, it is seen that that the services are not as fast as the other services are. The very beginning, the record keeping of the patient is the first stage from where this concern starts. Well, with the introduction of Electronic Medical Record system the lightening fast style has also entered into the area of medical record keeping. An EMR software in place helps in proper management of patients’ medical record in the form of an electronic format which is easily accessible by the computers on that network for the purpose of health-related services.
The electronic medical record includes reports of the patient, documents relating to the conditions as per his past, present or future physical and mental health, test reports, x-rays, and financial and personal information. To choose the best EMR software that you decide to install at your clinic or hospital or your lab you must look for its ability to perform some standard tasks. One of the tasks an EMR Software should be capable of doing is the capturing of patient data. By the term capturing I mean the ability of the software to capture the data entered through a rule defined database system with the help of any computer system used with. The data gathered hence works as the primary data. Secondly, the EMR software you choose should be able to integrate with other related fields or systems. It should be able to incorporate with other systems like financial, administrative, technological and clinical department. It should have the perspective of coordinating with management, billing, laboratory orders and reports, pharmaceutical prescriptions and the drugs store as well. The next important factor you should look for while installing EMR software is that it should always be helpful in getting insight while making a clinical decision. These insights range from diagnosis of the patient to the prescription of medicines as per recommendations. Almost all the EMR software available now a day has built in PDR-based medication dictionaries which provide doctors with Adverse Drug Event (ADE) alerts. It also provides the doctor generic drug recommendations and dosage recommendations. Depending on a patient’s diagnosis, EMR software also can make treatment recommendations. Regular check up interval reminders through EMR helps the concerned doctor and his staff to get updated about the patient. And good EMR software also makes alerts for the doctor in a situation like emergency. The next point of consideration for EMR software to be installed is the ease of accessibility. Ease of accessibility means the availability of required data like charts, reports, x-rays for an interpretation just at a single click. The next big issue concerned with the installation of EMR software is the security issue. All the EMR software with good security concern comes with enhanced administrative modules enabling the administrator to manage the accessibility to the database of electronic medical records of patients.
Last but not least, the EMR software you are about to install should be able to deliver a proper service towards the care of each and every patient whose records are feed into it.

Hard side of the EMR software: Hardware you require.

Along with all the sectors, health & medical sector is also experiencing the modern engineered advancement along with the introduction of sophisticated technology like Wi-Fi hotspots. One of the biggest hit technological advancement in the 20th century in the field of health & medical is the introduction of EMR software based record keeping. It has introduced the ease of flexibility concerned with the medical records. EMR software has changed the way physicians approach their patients. EMR software indeed is a great discovery. But every software itself is incomplete until and unless it accompanied by the appropriate hardware. Similarly, EMR software is no exception. Appropriate hardware is must for the exact working of EMR software.

In order to get the smooth function from the EMR software you need quality hardware. Since the implementation of ERM software is itself a costly affair. So, the selection of hardware should be a cautious concern. The purchase department after getting a good review on the requirement as per the suggestions and guidance from the concerned IT staff and the lead physicians can release the purchase order for the hardware. Along with hardware there is one more concern that should be given due importance. It is the infrastructure of your organization. Proper arrangement of cupboards, working desks etc. should be given attention. Apart from that the availability of hardware in wide ranges across all the markets is another point of worry because you have to choose the best as per your requirements and budget.

While implementing EMR software, the first consideration of hardware is for your server. The server is the backbone of your whole the network where you are about to use the EMR software. While buying the server, stick to the requirements that the EMR software vendor has set forth. Along with this you also need to decide about the operating system for your server, the backup system you would be using, type and capacity of the hard drive etc. Generally most of the servers are MS SQL compatible. But if your network is not spread over more than 10-15 computers then this is not a good option for you. You may opt for another operating system from Microsoft namely Microsoft Small Business Server which is available in different versions like 2003, 2003 Premium, 2005 etc. But before installing the server you should and always should discuss with your software vendor and your IT experts very well.

The next decision you have to make is in choosing the computer systems for the entire network. You can chose from a Tablet PC to a laptop depending upon your business size and structure and your clinical needs. Tablet PCs are becoming most popular among the users of all diversity. Whether you select slate or convertible style Tablet PC, both come with definite advantages. Depending upon your needs and budget you can easily find one good product in Tablet PC from any brand that suits you best. Desktop is also a good option for using EMR software in practice. Simple PCs or desktops from even a very good brand would cost a reasonable amount. The next stylish yet convenient option is laptop. With the ease of mobility accompanied by Wi-Fi hotspots running EMR software while moving is a great thing in laptops. Laptop is also a good option from the monetary angle.

An implementation of EMR software also requires other hardware apart from the server and the workstations. Hardware like printer, fax and scanner are the commonly used peripherals along with the EMR set up. All the paper documents can be transformed to its soft copy. It has acquired the use in the entire sector because a scanned soft copy is as legally valid as the original document is. Next big thing related with the implementation of EMR software is the concern of back up. An online back up for all the files would be the best possible solution. But a tape backup also can serve your purpose very well. A backup tape is obviously a hardware.

Privacy issue associated with Electronic Medical Records:

‘Good morning Mr. John! How’s your diabetes level now! Have you got it checked properly before your birthday on last week? We are offering a 20% discount on our all products at our lab ABC patho systems. Come to us; get a proper check up and save your hard earned bugs.’ Yes, this was the call I received from a pathology lab on last Monday morning. I was shocked to receive that promotional call. How could these guys come to know that I am a diabetic and where have they got my contact number? How have they gathered my personal data! I was shocked. I was astonished with no clues. Well! The same thing might happen to you. You also might have received some advertisements like this, either on your telephone or on your e-mail. If you have faced this type of situation then you might be a victim of data theft which generally happens to unsecure systems of record keepings. Usually we try to avoid those practices asking for our personal details, security numbers, citizenship codes etc. But when it comes to our health, we simply do not compromise because we want the best services available. In due desire and complying with the rules of record keeping we reveal all the details which are being put forward by the record keeper in our physician’s office. Without caring for the sensitivity of the personal data, we search for the best services towards our health problems. The privacy related to this type of personal data is a big concern even in the age of electronic medical records.
The confidentiality of data when it comes to the electronic medical records is always given priority. This is because in a hospital or clinic most of the staff members have access to such type of data and they come across them by a part or whole. Along with that other service providers and related vendors who come across that data may reach the level of about 5000 per patient roughly. In such a situation the confidentiality of data like the electronic medical records of the patient covering medical as well as payment records is obviously a matter of priority. In US this type of data is called Protected Health Information or simply PHI. The proper management of PHI comes under various local medical and personal confidentiality laws. In US this is governed mostly by the HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This law was enacted in 1996 by the US Congress. The Privacy Rule under HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act came into force on 14th April, 2003.
This privacy rule under HIPAA regulates the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information or Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI). The privacy rule says that the PHI or the EPHI of the concerned individual should be disclosed to him upon request within a period of 30 days. This rule also states that whenever the concerned entity or the record keeping organization needs to disclose PHI it should try to disclose only the minimum required information to achieve the purpose, not even a fraction more than that. This privacy rule also gives the confidentiality of communication to the individual. The individual can ask the concerned entity to contact him as per his choice regarding his electronic medical records or any part of his PHI. The concerned entity should comply with this rule of confidentiality of communication. The privacy rule also makes it mandatory to take the proper authorization from the individual to use his electronic medical records.
So, next time whenever you go to your physician or any pathology lab, this little guidance as per HIPAA may help you a lot.

HIPAA and Electronic Medical Records:

The most revolutionary idea in the medical record keeping practice is the introduction of electronic medical records technology. Earlier, before the introduction of electronic medical records system, the records of the patients like their personal details, reports, x-ray reports, scan reports and other billing related information were kept and stored manually. Usually record books and files were used for the same purpose, which in turn made it impossible to access at the time of immense requirement due to its space consuming nature. Apart from that due to the lack of proper privacy law the data with record keeper most often landed in the hand of an ancillary medical service provider, who in turn used these data to sell his goods and services. Same type of discrepancy was also found in case of electronic medical records of that time as well. A proper law in this accord was the need of the hour; otherwise the practice of medical record keeping would curve to a very bad state of distrust. Finally the HIPA Act was introduced. The Privacy Rule and the Final Rule on Security Standards under HIPAA saved the practice of medical record keeping from this evil.
HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulate the issue of privacy related to medical records in US. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was introduced in the year 1996 by the US Congress. The Privacy Rule was introduced in the year 2003 under Title II (two) of HIPAA. This act regulates the privacy issue related to the PHI. PHI or Protected Health Information is any piece of information regarding the health status, personal detail, reports, x-ray reports, billing information of the respective individual. This privacy rule says that the covered entities must give the PHI upon request of the concerned individual within a time frame of one month or 30 days. The PHI of the individual can be used only after his authorization. In a situation where the disclosure of PHI is required the minimum possible exposure has to be considered. The privacy rule under HIPAA also needs the concerned entity to make the communication confidential as per the requirement of the individual. All the paper and electronic medical records used should be notified to the individual as per the use. And if any one feels that his personal confidentiality under the Privacy Law has been breached he can file a complaint against the concerned entity with the Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights.
HIPAA under its Title II (two) covers the security rule also. The security rule deals specifically with the electronic medical records systems. The rule of security was finally issued on 20th Feb, 2003 which came to effect on 21st April, 2003. The compliance of this security law which started from 21st April, 2005 required three types of security safeguards. These are Administrative, Physical and Technical. For each of the type the Security Law lays different standards. The administrative safeguards are specifically designed policies and procedures to show the compliance of the concerned entity with the act. The physical safeguards are designed to protect the unauthorized inappropriate physical access to the data that is protected, mostly the electronic medical records. The technical safeguards are designed to work along the electronic transmission over network by the concerned entity so as to safeguard the access to the computer systems containing the electronic medical records.
Apart from these concerns, HIPAA also covers the whole medical and health related security issues with its other latest acts like the HITECH Act in 2009. HITECH stands for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

Electronic Medical Records: A Layman’s guide.

Everyone has become busier than ever before. Modern engineered and scientific advancements along with the internet have changed the life a lot. Be it the ease of transportation or the communication, everything has reached a level of simplification or near simplification. With these advancements modern life style also has acquired the ease of simplified technologies and the need of every business. Hence, world has become busier than ever before. With the introduction of these advancements the work load in every sector has also increased to a very potent level. The physiotherapist who could have a little rest during the library hours now have to work on those extra hours due to the use of online libraries and other resource centers. With such hefty increases in work load the stress level also has gone up. From an expert surgeon to a student everybody has the stress. Even an organization as a whole faces this type of stress. When it comes to the medical and health care sector the most stressful job is keeping the records of patients with different problems accordingly and systematically. Earlier record keepings of the patients were done manually in journals or record books. These record books in turn took the shape of files and eventually heaps of files. And if a patient comes for treatment again after a long period of a year or two, finding his records from those heaps of files was not an easy task for those who were involved in record keeping. In such a situation most of the patients required to register themselves again or required to give their details to the record keeper once again. Also in such a case where previous record, scans, x-rays were mandatory, due to the lack of proper record keeping the patient and the doctor who treats him faces problems. But with the introduction of electronic medical records technology, this type of problem has been sorted out.
Electronic medical records are the medical records in electronic formats. These electronic medical reports may contain patient’s personal detail, pharmacy orders, radiology results, laboratory results, discharge/transfer orders, and any other data from the supportive services. Technically it is a very sound way of keeping and manipulating medical records. Using electronic medical records the records of a patient can easily be stored, read, studied and manipulated by the concerned doctor or the surgeon with ease of mobility. Ease of mobility means that these electronic medical records can be retrieved and manipulated from anywhere by the concerned person/doctor with a handheld PDA or a laptop connected to the LAN of the record keeping stand – alone health information system. The monitoring and the interpretation of records and protection from adverse events are sometime done automatically by some sophisticated electronic medical records software. From the personal detail of the patient to the discharge order of the patient everything can be feed and done accordingly with the help of electronic medical records. The introduction of EMR or electronic medical reports into the system is not a very old one. Being a new concept in the field of medical records, the use of EMR is not very wide spread one. Even in US by 2005, only 25% of the office based doctors and physicians use either fully or partially the electronic medical records technology. And out of this 25% only 70% uses the complete EMR system.So, if your concerned doctor or the physician is already using electronic medical records technology into his practice, then it’s OK. Otherwise you have to ask for the same next time when you visit your physician in order to save your precious time in near future.

The Certification of EHR software: CCHIT

The latest space news reads ‘water reserves found in Mars’. How can you believe this! Just because the local newspaper reported it! Or you saw the latest update on your regular science and fiction magazine! But why do you believe it? It might be a fake one. Well! The reliability lies on the factor that the presence of water reservoir beneath the surface of Mars has been certified by the authorities like NASA which has captured the pictures with HiRISE or High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment fitted to its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Definitely the certification tag from NASA is the reason to believe this news. I have added this line only to make you understand that for the authenticity of any news or claim it should be accompanied by a proper valid certification. Same the case is with the EHR software that you want to implement into your system. The best way to find the finest of EHR software is to look for the certification it bears. The certification of EHR software system is something that is always concerned with the quality of the system. The CCHIT certification in EHR software is the most reliable certification in present time.
CCHIT stands for Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. CCHIT is a private non-profit govt. funded organization that serves as the recognized certification authority for EHR and the concerned networks. A proper certification like CCHIT in EHR software based systems reduces the risk associated with the investments in Health Information Technologies and Clinical Researches by physicians and respective service providers and researchers. CCHIT was founded in the year 2004 with the support of three leading associations from the field of healthcare information management and technology. These three organizations are American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the National Alliance for Health Information Technology. In the year 2005, the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conferred a three year contract to CCHIT to develop the evaluative certification criteria and inspection process for EHR systems and their working networks. During the period of this contract in the year 2006, the high quality performance of CCHIT drew the attention of HHS and CCHIT was conferred with the designation of Recognized Certification Body (RCB) for EHR software based systems in medical practices. CCHIT works with some basic aims in the field of EHR system. It always works towards the security of privacy and confidentiality. CCHIT evaluates EHR systems on the basis of the security options that it carries. The next goal is to ensure the adoption of EHR systems in place by providing incentives to the payers and purchasers. And due to this effort by CCHIT the adoption EHR software system in US medical industry raised up to a level of 25% and the percentage of ‘adoption in progress ’ also raised by a considerable level. CCHIT has developed an open source to test the compatibility of EHR as per the CCHIT norms. It is named LAIKA. CCHIT also releases lists of certified EHR software vendors and EHR products. So, your final decision of implementing EHR system should be as per the guidelines laid by CCHIT. You should select the EHR vendor by following the list of vendors and products that CCHIT releases.

How does EHR differ from EMR!

Almost thirty years back electronic medical records came into being with Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) in the medical sector. This was the primitive stage of EMR forming the EHR. When we say EMR forms EHR, it is confusing. Are they the same thing with different names or they are totally different from each other. Well! To understand this we need to know the difference between EMR and HER if any. Literally most of the people use these terms alternatively and this is actually a common practice. Even some medical professionals confuse these terms for each other. But in reality EHR is a much broader aspect of EMR. EHR is derived from EMR in fact. Yet nobody can separate them from each other completely, when someone says that he has used EHR software you can understand that he has the knowledge on EMR. EMR or electronic medical record is always the starting part of the electronic health record.
From the view point of content, EHR does not differ much from EMR. Both EMR and EHR are concerned with the records of a patient like his medical history, all the concerned reports, payment details, personal data etc. It differs by the use and flow of these data. Whereas EMR is said to be the stand alone health information system allowing use and manipulation by the physician and other staff members related to, the EHR software in place comes with more mobility and flexibility of using data. The data in EHR software system is capable of being shared within across different health care related settings. It is in an enhanced form than that of standalone storage. While EMR refers to the data that is gathered in one health centre or clinic, the data gathered with the help of EHR software is a cumulative collection process across different health care centers or clinics. EHR might be termed as the collection of the entire medical and health related data along with the personal data of the patient which is collected over a span of time during the health checkups of the patient across various medical terminals and are stored together.
The next issue differentiating EHR from EMR one is the security concern associated with both the practices. Whether you use EHR software or EMR software, the concern of confidentiality of data is there. In my personal opinion, EMR is less prone to data theft and other misuses in comparison to EHR system. This is because the EMR is somehow a record concerned with only one specific clinic or hospital, whereas EHR is related to different sources in most of the cases. Gathering data from different sources means that it has already passed through different hands and so has a greater degree of exposure than the EMR one.
The last difference according to most of the physicians, who uses either EMR or EHR software in their practices, is the type of network. A chain of hospitals or clinics in a network always would go for EHR software whereas a hospital that neither has any network nor any chain would simply prefer EMR.
With the passage of time, the differences are lessening than earlier. With the improvement in the technology, in near future almost all of them will use the system of EHR in place. Eventually everything in medical record keeping practice will take the form of EHR, the term EMR would most probably be eliminated in future.

EHR and Clinical Research:

With the improvements in technology, all the sectors now use to serve with modern facilities and the coordination among those facilities. The introduction of EHR software based system of medical records in medical sector is such an advancement which coordinates with other area like the decision making by the concerned physician, prescribing drugs, getting lab reports etc. And among all these the clinical researches which are always based on the data gathered through EHR software system, is the one with greatest importance. The gathered data on patients serve the purpose of base for the clinical research in different areas. With the growth of EHR uses, the issues related to the clinical researches are also growing. This is because such researches are based on the data from EHR.

The growth of EHR software based system is evident from the fact that 50% percent of the hospitals in EU used EHR software support in the year 2004. Obviously by 2009 this percentage has crossed the level of more than 70%. In US the adoption of EHR software support among all the hospitals and clinics was 12% in the year 2005. In the same year, in 13% of the total hospitals and clinics in US the adoption of EHR was in progress. The adoption level in 2009 has grown to the level of 25%. And due to this spread of EHR system in medical records system, the problems associated with the data gathering through EHR software supported system is also growing.


Source data held in EHR systems may not be appropriate as a base for clinical research studies. The data entry errors in EHR system is another point of concern for the clinical researches which should be eliminated to the lowest possible rate. Apart from this the transcription error of data and the source reliability issue related to EHR software based systems also require utmost importance. Clinical studies always require reliable data which can support safety and efficacy. Also the systems used for the purpose of clinical studies should comply with strong regulations required for the same. For all these an EHR system in use must comply with the regulations like documentation of the validation of the EHR system. Secondly the documentation of the ability of the EHR software based system to generate accurate and complete copies of records suitable for inspection, review, and copying for legal purposes also. Thirdly it requires the documentation of a secure, computer-generated, time-tagged audit trail.


All these regulations stated above should be there so that an order of homogeneity can be derived from the quality of healthcare data to be used in clinical research. We can better say here in the words of Richard Perkins, President of eClinical Forum that ‘we need a common understanding and approach; we need to connect Healthcare and Research’.


The current scenario in the EHR software based data management system lacks the reliability of data. But it is in a transition period towards the integration of EHR data and the clinical research where the seamless transfer of data for the purpose of research would be a common scene. And in a near future the EHR software would be programmed as per the basic requirements of the clinical research and study. And definitely we would be in a state of better health with better disease control efficiency than ever before.