Healthcare Technology Featured Article

September 25, 2013

eClinicalWorks, Epic Work Together to Make EHR Systems More Interoperable


For some time now, medical facilities have been providing better health through information technology (IT). The various electronic methods for managing information about patients have led to the betterment of healthcare: from the practitioner being able to proactively discuss the patient’s care via a private network or secure Internet connection, to sharing clinical information whenever and wherever through a computer or mobile device.

Looking for, pulling and handling records, which is required with paper-based patient files, is becoming obsolete, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) of health-related data is prevailing. More and more medical records are being electronically transmitted to improve documenting patient visits and enrich communication amongst physicians and care providers.

Data shared electronically among providers is optimizing interoperability and improving patient care. It’s a revolution in healthcare technology that enables physicians to plan and prepare for a patient’s visit, make informed decisions and electronically exchange key clinical information, when requested in real-time.

A requirement by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) led to going paperless. The Act incentive program enables eligible general practitioners (GPs) access to patient-specific clinical data in Electronic Health Record (EHRs) systems.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and EHRs are used interchangeably; however, the key difference to note is the interoperability of an EHR which can improve clinical workflows, patient flow, services delivered and care efficiency.

The concept of an EHR-linked patient portal has had an impact on the health industry and is a growing area of Health IT (HIT); the successful implementation and meaningful use (for timely information required for improved decisions) has come to satisfy the objectives of enhancing the overall healthcare quality for patients while meeting medical staff practice needs to store clinical data in less time and effort.

Electronic health records (EHR) are likely to be implemented by more medical facilities, only if the healthcare industry can prove it is able to safeguard patients’ records that are stored on computer databases, in the future. In recent times, EHR adoption has however increased as the health industry came to focus more on interoperability between systems, which allows for better transmission of data related to the care of a patient, according to Dr. Raj Dharampuriya, chief medical officer and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. eClinicalWorks is a privately-held specialist in ambulatory healthcare IT solutions that is committed to developing industry-leading interoperability standards. This company provides a comprehensive EHR solution, like the eClinicalWorks V10 EHR, to help physicians through the technology necessary to improve health outcomes and achieve their goal of delivering the best patient care possible.

eClinicalWorks strives to be set apart from other similar fast-growing private companies by concentrating on technology advancements and support in interoperability. Its comprehensive EHR solutions enriches healthcare providing technology and services that lead to complete and accurate patient information in various care settings. The technology extends the use of EHRs and Practice Management (PM) solutions that provide efficient processes and workflows; it is a seamlessly unified system that enables better communication between all parties involved and allows making better and timelier clinical decisions.

eClinicalWorks’s commitment in developing interoperability standards between systems that enable real-time communication among medical providers in different care settings, can be shown by this week’s announcement on the bi-directional interoperability between the eClinicalWorks electronic health records (EHR) and Epic’s EHR system. It entails using the IHE PDQ integration profile to provide a high degree of certainty of a strong patient match as well as the XDR and XDS.b standards for clinical document exchange, disclosed eClinicalWorks on its website.

This integration allows for real-time data transfer between the systems; primarily to improve communication and share patient data, yet, ultimately to provide a higher level of patient care.

According to Peter DeVault of Epic Systems Corporation—a software vendor of healthcare IT products in the U.S. EMR market that also supports the movement to integrated enterprise EMRs and fully endorses as well as officially adopts the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association's Developer Code of Conduct—it is because both companies are committed to a common goal, supporting the national interoperability standards of implementing an integrated health system, which makes it possible to implement this connection and enable interoperability in a short time-frame.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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