Patient-centered Care and Electronic Health Records: It's Still About the Relationship

Two of the most important developments in ambulatory practice over the past 20 years are the advent of patient and relationship-centered care (PRCC) and electronic health records (EHRs). However, there is a large gap in knowledge and practice between PRCC and EHR use. We believe the integration of PRCC with EHRs has the potential to personalize care, improve population-based care, and increase patient involvement. To accomplish this, advanced practitioners from both computer- and communication-centric disciplines must work together to establish systems that work synergistically. Research examining how outstanding clinicians use EHRs is essential to establish best practice models of use. As well, clinicians must examine how they use EHRs in their communication with patients, become aware of when the EHR hinders the human connection and when it enhances it, and develop a repertoire for using it simultaneously with PRCC.