In today’s fast-paced world, the healthcare industry must continually adapt to a slew of new and updated technologies, methods of practice, and regulations that shape the way patient care is given and received.
Before a practitioner can provide any patient with care, electronic health records (EHRs), or digital collections of a patient’s medical history, must be accessed and reviewed to determine the best course of action based on prior medical data. This can be associated with a degree of difficulty because healthcare organizations and facilities across the globe use a wide range of EHR systems, and formats are often incompatible or do not integrate well, making it difficult or impossible to access this information.
The disconnection of global EHRs provides a compelling case for the global standardization of EHR systems whereby all record formats are the same and sharable between healthcare organizations worldwide. Furthermore, universal records would ideally include medical, prescriptions, optical lenses, and more. It is a tall task, but one that members of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) are starting to tackle.
To understand the potential of a standardized EHR system, the history of EHRs is important to note. The first major health institution to adopt an EHR system was the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in the 1960s. The use of early EHR systems was driven mainly by economic factors, with billing and scheduling representing the main priorities for usage. Early systems were also expensive, so only the largest healthcare organizations could afford them. Most other organizations were still collecting and storing patients’ data and medical histories on physical paper records. As EHR systems became more affordable and available in the 1980s, their main purpose shifted to patient care, and they were developed with fields that could be filled in with clinical patient information and stored electronically. By the 1990s, technology had entered most medical offices, and the rise of the internet gave way to widespread global adoption of EHR systems. Today, EHR systems are the industry standard and are necessary to ensure optimal patient care and HIPAA compliance.
The widespread use and adoption of EHR systems across the globe, while enhancing patient care, has also brought with it a variety of challenges. Though most EHR programs and systems used by healthcare institutions record and store the same types of information, they can and often do operate in vastly diverse ways. There are hundreds of EHR system providers across the world, all with their own programming, coding, and mechanisms for recording, storing, and transferring information. This means that each individual healthcare institution across the world is using at least one, and likely multiple, operating systems out of the hundreds available. Issues arise when two institutions are trying to communicate critical patient information but are unable to do so efficiently because their EHR systems are not compatible. In some instances, obtaining this information quickly, and in a standardized format, could be the difference between a positive or potentially fatal outcome for a patient.
To provide a real-world example, imagine that a traveler with asthma is on vacation in another country and loses their prescription inhaler. A pharmacy in that country could fill the prescription, but they would require a record from the traveler’s pharmacy or physician. If the traveler’s home pharmacy has an EHR system that is incompatible with the system used by the vacation pharmacy, there could be a delay in getting the prescription, the possibility of receiving the incorrect prescription, or the traveler having to call the physician for a new prescription or visit a local doctor. In the case of a delay or incorrect prescription, harm could come to the traveler if they were to have an asthma attack or receive medicine that causes a drug interaction.
This scenario, while hypothetical, has undoubtedly happened before, and will continue to happen without standardization of EHR systems within the healthcare industry. This is why IEEE SA is working towards the creation of guidelines for a standardized EHR system where all record formats are the same and sharable across all healthcare institutions. Standardization of global EHRs would include not just hospitals, but clinics, private practices, pharmacies, imaging centers, optometrists, insurance providers, and other healthcare institutions. Implementing standardized EHRs can yield better and faster patient outcomes, prevent treatment errors, create efficiencies, and eliminate redundancies. All of these benefits can also help drive down soaring healthcare costs.
IEEE SA’s work towards the global standardization of EHRs begins with a focus on connectivity and data portability, which has involved many healthcare entities. With this work, IEEE SA hopes that the healthcare industry can be transformed into a globally connected ecosystem that provides better outcomes for patients, practitioners, and institutions alike.
To get involved or learn more about the work IEEE SA is doing in EHR system standardization, visit the IEEE SA Connectivity & Telecom – Data Quality Standards of Electronic Health Records Workgroup page.
Purva Rajkotia
Purva Rajkotia is the Director of Global Business Strategy & Intelligence (GBSI) and the Connectivity and Telecom Practice Lead at IEEE SA. Prior to IEEE, Purva held leadership positions with Qualcomm, Samsung, and Disney in various capacities. Purva also held leadership positions in various standards organizations such as ITU, 3GPP, 3GPP2, CENELEC, etc. He has authored more than 100 patents granted by the USPTO (US Patent Office) and other worldwide patent organizations. He is one of the co-authors of the chapter on Powerline Communications in the book "MIMO Power Line Communications Narrow and Broadband Standards, EMC, and Advanced Processing" by CRC Press. He obtained his MSEE degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
