THE BIG PICTURE: ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

The electronic health record (EHR) is at the centre of all patient care – a repository for vital information that can improve not only the care of an individual patient but potentially also the future healthcare of all.

This feature, sponsored by EMIS, considers how UK healthcare might achieve its long-held ambition of creating a comprehensive, longitudinal EHR. It considers how EMIS’s next generation software, EMIS Web, is moving towards this goal, with interoperability at its heart.

Looking at the bigger picture, it considers how anonymised patient records can provide a vital tool for research and looks at how new technologies are empowering patients to not only access, but also contribute to their EHRs.

Maximising the potential of the EHR A step-by-step approach based on interoperability is the key to delivering a comprehensive, longitudinal electronic healthcare record, argues Sean Riddell, Healthcare Managing Director of EMIS.  Case Study: Improving healthcare through research Dr David Stables, Clinical Director of EMIS, considers how data entered once for the care of an individual patient can also improve healthcare for all in this overview of the QRESEARCH project. Case Study: Patient Power This case study explores how new technologies are opening up ever greater access for patients to their records – enabling them to not only read the record itself, but also to contribute data.