Question

1) Describe how the electronic health record (EHR) is a clinical information system and how does evidence base medicine (EBM) integrate in the EHR for improved patient outcomes.

Answer 1

When the health information chart of a patient is digitalized, its called Electronic healt record or EHR. The HER is patient centred and realistic records which securely and immediately allows the availability of data to the permitted users. EHR contains:

• Biographic data of the client
• Data on the medical history, diagnoses, medications, surgical history, treatments, immunization history, allergy alerts, radiographic images, laboratory results etc
• All about the health history, from different health care settings and different clinicians.

The EHR are essential part of the health technology as it allows access to evidence based tools that the health providers can utilize in patient care. Also EHR helps the health provider to automate and streamline the health care work. The HER contain information from different health care providers of the client across organizations, and also from different members of health team like specialists, pharmacists, laboratory experts, imaging experts etc.The EHR are so documented by experts, that it can be shared with other members of the client’s health care team.

The introduction and development of independent physician practices by most of the hospitals, lot of opportunities have opened to coordinate EHR and EBM (evidence based medicine) to improve the patient outcomes.

• The patient will get care in different settings, with less time lapse for detailing and data collection, when they have a single digital document with all the health aspects documented.
• EHR can co ordinate the hospital clinicians and primary care physicians, making the communication between them promoting easy diagnosis, and discussion of treatment protocols and implementations. This also allows the patient to get the appropriate treatment on time.
• Provide the clinician with pivotal evidence based literature for timely and learned decision making.
• If an electronic prescribing module is also integrated to the EHR, the physician gets informed of the objective for prescribing a particular medicine.
• Also the cost, efficacy and adverse effects of various drug based therapies can be identified with e prescribing integrated to EHR , and this also helps the clinician to make best prescribing decisions.