Electronic Health Record: Definition, Categories and Standards

The demand for high quality, safe and quantity for healthcare is increasing while the resources remain unchanged. Adoption of better information technology can achieve significant improvements in quality and safety of healthcare delivery in the environment of increasing pressure on healthcare systems. This will also contribute to contain healthcare cost in the long run. Many developed and developing countries in the world pay attention on appropriate use of information communication technology(ICT) in healthcare domain. Some countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Canada and others adopted strategic plan of National Health Information Infrastructure for next 10 years. The objectives for ICT application of developed countries are summarized as: To improve access to clinical records; To reduce clinical errors and improve safety of patients; To improve access to quality information on health for patients and healthcare professionals; To improve efficiency of healthcare processes; and To contain healthcare costs. The core of the ICT adoption in health is to have universal availability of electronic health and clinical records(EHR) at the point of care. This review, therefore, briefly described the definition, architectures, essential functionalities and applicable standards of EHR.