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.
