EMR stands for electronic medical record. EHR stands for electronic health record. To an ordinary man or woman, both would appear to be the same but there is a huge difference between EMR and EHR.
EMR and EHR both aim to achieve the same purpose which is to track the history of medical conditions and health factors of an individual. In a sense, EMR or EHR is the documentation of a person’s lifetime in regards to medical conditions and health.
The principal difference between EMR and EHR is in the fact that EMR contains all medical information while EHR contains all data or facts that is associated with the person’s health. This needs to be illustrated to understand the practical difference between EMR and EHR.
An EMR would contain documents, data and medical records of an individual. It would have mentions of all the clinics or hospitals that the individual has visited, all the doctors who have been consulted and a detailed record of every medical condition that the person has had, has and might have in the future based on existing reports or diagnoses. An EMR helps with furthering of any medical treatment because of the easy availability of relevant details or information. An EMR would contain the history of blood pressure and any disease or condition that an individual has.
An EHR would contain all the aforementioned history and factual details that an EMR has but it would have more information. An EHR would contain information that is not strictly medical. For instance, an EMR may have details about a hospital visit, how long a person was there and who attended to the person. An EHR would have additional information about the allergies that a person may have, overall health stats and lifestyle factors which are not directly depicted in medical jargon. In other words, EHR is a true account of a person’s entire health while EMR is only confined to the medical history.
An EHR is much more helpful for anyone than an EMR. While the significance of EMR cannot be understated or overstated, it is an EHR that actually helps in time of need. In emergency situations, an EHR would tell the doctors that a patient cannot be given certain medications due to certain health factors. This is something that wouldn’t be under the purview or within the brief of an EMR.
