Four Reasons Data Normalization Is Key To The Future Of EHRs

By Causey McLain, Senior Product Manager for Health Language, part of Wolters Kluwer

The EHR Revolution

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) originated as an attempt to digitize traditional paper medical records (hence the early moniker “Electronic Medical Record” (EMR), implying the system is an electronic representation of a paper medical record). There were certainly drivers for this shift from paper to electronic records, such as enhanced storage, retrieval, update, availability of patient data, and reduction of paper waste, but the capabilities of first-generation EMRs were not designed to extend the use of patient records significantly beyond similar uses to those met by their paper forebears.

Over the years, other electronic systems for creating and storing patient information came online, such as Laboratory Information Systems (LIS), and EHRs found themselves among an array of independent, isolated departmental health information systems. Converting this array of disconnected systems into a network of interoperable resources became a priority, and, while communications and content standards have helped the process, there are still semantic gaps within the data sourced from these disparate systems.

As technology and the digitization of healthcare data have progressed, EHRs have become an enabling technology for a more holistic, patient-centered, connected method of managing patient and population health. Now, EHRs are expected to be nodes of a healthcare information network connecting patients, providers, and payers in new ways designed to optimize the cost and quality of healthcare delivery and outcomes, the patient experience, and the utilization of human and other provider resources.

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