EMR/EHR

Electronic medical records (EMR) are a digital version of a patient’s chart that store their personal information, medical history and links to prior exams, texts and reports. The goal of these systems is to enable immediate access to the patient's data electronically, rather than needing to request paper file folders that might be stored in fragment files at numerous locations where a patient is seen or treated. EMRs (also called electronic health records, or EHR) improve clinician and health system efficiency by making all this data immediately available. This helps reduce repeat tests, repeat prescriptions and repeat imaging exams because reports, imaging or other patient data is not not immediately available. 

VA names ONC's Morris to lead VA EHR modernization

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently named Genevieve Morris, the principal deputy national coordinator for HHS, as the leader of the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (OEHRM). The VA announced the decision July 12.

July 16, 2018

UW Medicine approves $180M plan to implement single EHR platform

The University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine will begin a complete overhaul of its electronic health record (EHR) system—and it’s not going to be cheap. The school’s finance committee approved $180 million to replace existing Cerner and Epic systems with a single integrated platform.

July 9, 2018
Microscope

Benefits of EHR may be a ways off, but physicians need to see the potential

Lloyd B. Minor, the dead of Stanford University School of Medicine, equated problems harnessing the positives of EHR with the microscope. It took 70 years for that game-changing tool to lead to scientific breakthroughs—a delay that might have to do as much with the user as the instrument itself.

July 2, 2018

GAO: Before Cerner transition, VA spent $1B a year on EHR

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is about to undergo a massive, $16 billion revamp of its electronic health record (EHR) system. A month after a $10 million deal with Cerner was finalized, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report that found the VA spent $3 billion on EHR support between 2015 and 2017.

July 2, 2018

VA announces EHR oversight hearing

Representatives Phil Roe, MD, R-Tennessee, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA), and Tim Walz, D-Florida, Ranking Member of the House VA Committee, have announced the “VA Electronic Health Record Modernization: The Beginning of the Beginning”—a that hearing will take place Tuesday, June 26, at 10 a.m.

June 25, 2018

Allscripts offers buyouts to employees

Allscripts, the Chicago-based electronic health record (EHR) company, has confirmed it is offering buyouts to employees, according to reporting from POLITICO.

June 22, 2018

Struggles with EHR create frustration among physicians

Attending emergency department (ED) physicians experienced increased levels of frustration due to difficulties using electronic health records (EHRs), according to a study published May 16 in Applied Clinical Informatics.

June 14, 2018

Physicians see value in EHRs, but want improvements

American physicians see value in electronic health records (EHRs), but they still want substantial improvements, according to a survey by Stanford Medicine and conducted by The Harris Poll.

June 5, 2018

Around the web

Half a year after President Biden officially directed federal agencies in the executive branch’s bailiwick to “seize the promise and manage the risks” of AI, the White House has posted a status report.

U.S. physicians often receive payments from medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. New research in JAMA found a connection between receiving such payments and using specific devices—should the industry be concerned? 

Five of the largest U.S. medical societies focused on cardiovascular health are one step closer to seeing their paradigm-shifting proposal become a reality.

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