e-Health Records

News about EPR / EHR and PHS

Reports and Surveys

ETHICS and CERTIFICATION of Medical Information on the WEB

GENERAL INFO AND SITES OF INTEREST

EHTO presents on this page information on the development of patient records from the traditional paper-bound files to an Electronic Health Records (EHR). The e-Health Record is sometimes also referred to as Electronic Healthcare Record (EHCR), Electronic Patient Record (EPR), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Computerized Patient Record (CPR).

Organizations and Institutions

• CAEHR Ltd. (Medical Records Institute, UK)
• ERDIP - Electronic Record Development and Implementation Programme (NHS, UK)
• EUROREC - European Institute for Health Records (Be)
• GEHR - The Open Health Record Foundation
• ICMCC - International Council of Medical Care & Compunetics (NL)
• Medical Records Institute, (MRI, USA)
• openGALEN.org

Industry Federations

• Europe Innova: eHealth Standards and Interoperability (15 Oct 2007)
• Continua Health Alliance ( Dr. John Halamka): Personal Health Records (Nov 2007)
• HIMSS: Electronic Health Record (Portal)
• HIMSS: Electronic Medical Records vs. Electronic Health Records: Yes, there is a Difference (pdf) (26 Jan 2006)
• openEHR

Think Tanks and Academia

• Medical Research Council: The Use of Personal Health Information in Medical Research (26 Jun 2007)
• Rand Corporation: RAND Study Says Health Information Technology Can Improve Quality and Efficiency; More Evidence Needed About How to Put the Technology Into Wider Use (11 Apr 2006)
• Archives of Internal Medicine (Jeffrey A. Linder, David W. Bates et al.): Electronic Health Record Use and the Quality of Ambulatory Care in the US (Jul 2007)
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Evaluation of electronic health records use

Projects

• e-Cept EPR Multidisciplinary Course (Pilot Project, 2004) - This pilot project aims at training clinicians in multi-disciplinary EPR based electronic documents. A group of Scandinavian health informatics professionals has designed and developed an e-learning program “e-Cept eCourse” to assist healthcare staff (e.g. nurses, doctors, ergotherapists, physiotherapists, etc.) in training team-based electronic documentation supported on EPR. The training includes online communication with the personal mentor –and team approach, via virtual classrooms to exercise discussion and instructional feedback. The project has been developed  by the company e-cept.com (DK), having the Danish Technological Institute as its Key partner.  Furthermore it is listed as a public project  (66) under the EURO LEARN Umbrella (EUREKA) (for more information visit www.e-cept.com/e-ceptuk.html , as well its available “DEMO”).
• PROREC - "PROmotion strategy for european electronic healthcare RECords" has its origins in a co-funded initiative of the European Commission. The main goal of PROREC is to promote and coordinate the European wide convergence towards comprehensive, communicable and secure Electronic Healthcare Records (EHCR).
• GALEN - The aim of GALEN (1992-1995) was to provide a foundation on which to build the next generation of clinical information and electronic patient record systems. Its work was continued through the GALEN-IN-USE project (1995-1999), which developed a European Common Reference Model for Medical Procedures. It is succeeded by openGALEN, a non-profit organisation which aims to further develop this CRM as open source. 
• Synapses enables healthcare professionals to share electronic patient records and related medical data wherever and in whatever system they are held. It provides the open generic means to access them consistently and simply. Due provision is made for legal, ethical and security requirements.
• ToMeLo intends to fill in a gap in the interrelationships of ongoing projects in Health Telematics related to the Electronic Healthcare Record.
• CITRON explores synergies derived from the implementation and integration of three technology lines in the Health Care environment: Users' Identification (especially through smart cards), Access to information (through a specialised Health Call Centre) and Registry of Information (in the Electronic Medical Record)

Standardization

• CEN TC 251
• HL7 
  especially see: Medical Records/Information Management Technical Committee 
  and Patient Administration and Financial Management (PAFM) Technical Committee 
  as well as Patient/Provider Messaging Special Interest Group 
  and Secure Transactions Special Interest Group
• ETSI - European Telecommunication Standards Institute
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  especially see: Healthcare Informatics Standards Board (HISB)
• American Society for Standards and Testing Materials (ASTM)
  (go to Technical Committee E31 Healthcare Informatics)

Legal Matters and Security Issues

• IST Key Action II and Smart Cards
• Smart Cards for secure electronic access (Priority Area of the eEurope 2002 Action Plan)
• 5th Framework Programme Cross Programme Action CPA5: Smart Cards
• An Overview Of Issues in Health Data Security and Confidentiality Under the New European Data Protection Legislation. 
  (Dr Petra Wilson, Visiting Scientist, Health Telematics, European Commission)
• INFOSEC (Information Security)
• Privacy and Confidentiality of Health Information at CIHI (Canada):
  Principles and policies for the protection of health information 
• Health Information Privacy Protection Act (HIPAA 1996) (USA)
• Department of Health and Human Services: Administrative Simplification the HIPAA (USA)
  intended to reduce the costs and administrative burdens of health care by making possible the standardized, electronic transmission of many administrative and financial transactions that are currently carried out manually on paper.
• Health Privacy Project (USA)

Other Interesting Links

• Pilot Project on Team-based Electronic Documentation e-Learning (EPR) - 2004 Pilot Project implemented by the Danish Technological Institute (DK)
  (Webmaster@e-cept.com )
• Australian National Electronic Health Record Taskforce
• e-Health Ethics Initiative and e-Health Code of Ethics
• GEHR - The Good Electronic Health Record
• Good European Health Record Project 
• MedSeC Project - Speed-optimized Data Security for Telemedical Applications
• Open Source Health Care Alliance (OSHCA)
• Uniform by IBEX - Implementation of an EHR system at the University Hospital in Geneva
• Working Group for Data Protection in Health Information Systems (Germany)
  (Arbeitsgruppe fuer Datenschutz in Gesundheitsinformationssystemen)
• National Health Service Information Authority (NHSIA) (United Kingdom)
  An Information Strategy for a Modern NHS (1998-2003). Chapter 2 describes "how electronic patient and health records will be developed to support the healthcare process"
• Experience with an Electronic Healthcare Record for a Homeless Population (Paper from AMIA 1999)