What is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) – Meaning, Applications And Advantages

EMR vs EHR – What is the difference?

Before we discuss the basic difference between EMR and EHR, let’s look at the definition of EMR and EHR.

What is EMR?

EMR definition:

EMR – short for Electronic Medical record – is a medical chart of a patient in a digital format, which is maintained by the specialist, dentist, physician, clinic or surgeon in a practice.

Here is a detailed article giving you information about Electronic Medical Records, including EMR applications and EMR advantages – What is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) – Meaning, Applications And Advantages

What is EHR?

EHR definition:

EHR – short for Electronic Health Record – is a health record of a patient in a digital format, which is fed and maintained by authorised clinicians from multiple practices. Therefore, EHR provides collective information of the medical history of a person, in a comprehensive manner. By design, it can be shared with other health organisations, such as hospitals, clinics, and laboratories in a way that it includes information from all the clinicians involved in the patient’s healthcare.

Both EMR and EHR can be used in:

Hospital management systems or Health management information system (HMIS)
Lab management systems or Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)
Clinic management systems (including dental clinics) or Practice management system
Medical store management systems

EMR and EHR Difference

EMR	EHR
In EMR systems, medical records cannot be shared outside the organisation or to another unauthorised laboratory or clinician.	In EHR systems, medical records are streamlined and can be shared between authorised organisations, laboratories and clinicians.
EMR is a narrow view of a patient’s medical history.	EHR is a comprehensive report of the patient’s overall health.
EMR is fed and maintained by a single hospital, clinic or laboratory.	EHR is fed and maintained by all hospitals, clinics and laboratories involved in the patient’s healthcare.
In EMR systems, medical records do not travel beyond the hospital, clinic or laboratory from which it was recorded	In EHR systems, medical records travel across all hospitals, clinics and laboratories along with the patient for a lifetime.