Electronic Medical Record | EMR

An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is a digital platform used to collect, manage, and store a patient’s clinical data within a specific healthcare provider’s practice. Unlike a Computerized Patient Record (CPR), which often involves digitizing information from paper-based records, data in an EMR is directly gathered and maintained in an electronic format.

An EMR includes a broad array of health information, such as medical history, diagnoses, medication records, immunization status, laboratory test results, and radiology reports. In the context of medical imaging informatics, EMRs can integrate data from Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), which include medical images and corresponding interpretative reports, further enriching the patient’s health profile.

However, EMRs should not be confused with Electronic Health Records (EHRs). While an EMR is typically confined to the data collected in one healthcare provider’s office, an EHR represents a more comprehensive picture of a patient’s health, incorporating information from multiple healthcare providers and institutions, thus offering a broader, longitudinal view of a patient’s health history.