HIT terms becoming more defined

Do you know the difference between an e-medical record and an e-health record? Health IT professionals are banking on an answer of "no," which is why there now is more of a push to give more "precise definitions" to oft used HIT terms, according to an article in Government Health IT. For example, a health information exchange (HIE) should not be defined as any sort of organization, but rather the act of exchanging health information. Furthermore, a HIE org for, say, orthopedic surgeons nationwide, should not be referred to as a regional health information organization (RHIO) because it spans more than just a single region.

So what is the difference between an EMR and an EHR? According to project leaders at the National Alliance for Health IT, an EMR "is created and maintained by people from one organization, such as a hospital." An EHR, on the other hand, "is an aggregate of health records from more than one healthcare organization."

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