ABSTRACT
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An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s medical history. It is a
longitudinal record of patient health information generated by one or several encounters in any
healthcare providing setting. The term is often used interchangeably with EMR (Electronic Med-
ical Record) and CPR (Computer-based Patient Record). It encompasses a full range of data rel-
evant to a patient’s care such as demographics, problems, medications, physician’s observations,
vital signs, medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, radiology reports, personal statistics,
progress notes, and billing data. The EHR system automates the data management process of com-
plex clinical environments and has the potential to streamline the clinician’s workflow. It can gener-
ate a complete record of a patient’s clinical encounter, and support other care-related activities such
as evidence-based decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting. An EHR sys-
tem integrates data for different purposes. It enables the administrator to utilize the data for billing
purposes, the physician to analyze patient diagnostics information and treatment effectiveness, the
nurse to report adverse conditions, and the researcher to discover new knowledge.
