The article was initially published on Vilmate Blog.
The main purpose of technology is to optimize, advance, and assist in procedures and workflows for people of various professional fields. Healthcare specialists are no different in regard to counting upon new avenues.
EHR systems connect the advancements of technology with high-quality care. Their main goal is to provide convenient solutions to the potential challenges of health record management.
In this brief abstract, we will give the definition of an EHR, set its benefits, and define the core features of every EHR system.
What is an electronic health record system?
Basically, an electronic health record system (EHR) is a digital version of the paper charts. They are designed to store patients’ medical and treatment histories alongside other related details. These records can also easily be shared with authorized providers like pharmacies, laboratories, or emergency facilities.
Don’t confuse EMR vs. EHR. Essentially, an EMR — an electronic medical record — serves as an integral part of an EHR. It refers to records like diagnoses, allergies, and immunization dates. In turn, EHR is not just a record.
EHR allows all kinds of data to be manipulated, retrieved, and updated via built-in tools and procedures.
Despite the benefits of EHR systems, they were never considered perfect, especially before the Covid pandemic. It was just a source of extra work for many.
However, the pandemic switched the focus on a faster transformation of the flaws for healthcare workers to better address health issues.
So, let’s look at some constitutional benefits of a consistent EHR system, without diving into much detail.
Major benefits of a well-designed EHR system
Electronic health record systems ensure the improvement of documentation management, making it more patient-centered. The data becomes instantly available to authorized users and adjustable in real-time. Let’s take a look at the most outstanding benefits of EHR systems in healthcare without going into detail.
- Generally better patient care.
- Better clinical decision-making.
- More effective communication.
- More accurate automated document processing.
- Increased productivity.
- Improved efficiency.
- Enhanced security.
- Lower healthcare costs.
Constitutional features of any EHR system
The picture below illustrates all the necessary components required for a fully functional EHR system. To dive more into the details, check out the full article here.
Technologies one can’t skip in an EHR system
The chosen tech stack has to serve the purpose of creating a reliable and service-oriented architecture, which will guarantee health information technology interoperability, interpretation, and use among different systems.
The application has to include modules that would communicate via REST API. It would enable better app scalability, convenient system maintenance, and recovery. Moreover, it can ensure the compliance of the system with the existing healthcare regulations like HIPAA, HITECH, GDPR, PIPEDA, or PCI-DSS.
Further reading: General data protection regulation
So what are the key parts of EHR system architecture?
Backend:
- A programming language
- Web frameworks and libraries
- A database server
- A web server
- Cloud servers
You may also like: Reasons to choose Python for back-end development
Frontend:
- A programming language
- Web frameworks and libraries
- iOS SDK
- Android SDK
Related reading: 7 Reasons to choose React for your project
UI/UX design:
- Hidden complexity
- User guide
- Key features & Functionality
See also: UX writing: 7 basic principles of good UX copywriting
Quality assurance:
- Extensive testing
- Appropriate testing strategy
- Flawless & secure EHR system
More info: Manual testing vs. Automation testing
Conclusion
If you or your organization is looking into the possibility of developing your own custom EHR system, be assured that you are on the right track!
Don’t forget to read the full article to make yourself certain even more: EHR Systems: Types, Benefits, and Must-Have Features.
Vilmate has years of experience building software systems from scratch, in the healthcare sector in particular, so don’t hesitate to check our portfolio.
