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Glossary · Healthcare & Clinical

What is EHR (Electronic Health Records)?

A patient health record designed to follow the patient across providers — the broader, interoperability-oriented cousin of an EMR.

Also known as

electronic health recordshealth recordspatient records
Definition

EHR (Electronic Health Records) — explained.

An EHR (Electronic Health Records) is a patient health record designed to follow the patient across providers, primary care, secondary care, specialists, and (depending on the jurisdiction) a national repository. The distinction from an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) is one of scope: an EMR is the operational record kept by a single provider organisation; an EHR is the longitudinal record assembled from multiple providers. In practice the terms blur because most modern EMRs export to / import from an EHR via interoperability standards (HL7 FHIR, regional profiles). For an integrator the distinction matters when designing import / export endpoints and consent flows — an EHR-grade integration carries provenance metadata (which provider produced which record entry) and consent flags (which clinical context is the data permitted to be used in) that an EMR-internal record may not.

Industries where this matters

Verticals where ehr (electronic health records) is operationally critical.

Related terms

Adjacent definitions to read next.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records)

Healthcare & Clinical

A clinic's digital record of every patient encounter — vitals, history, notes, prescriptions, labs, attachments — owned by a single provider.

HL7 FHIR

Healthcare & Clinical

The current global standard for exchanging clinical data between healthcare systems — JSON / XML resources over a REST API.

HIPAA

Compliance & Data

The US healthcare-data-protection law governing Protected Health Information (PHI) — covers privacy, security, breach notification, and business-associate agreements.

AI Clinical Assistant

Healthcare & Clinical

A side-pane AI in the EMR that summarises history, drafts notes from voice, suggests differential diagnoses, and flags drug interactions.

Clinic Management System

Healthcare & Clinical

The single platform that runs a clinic or hospital — EMR, appointments, billing, lab, radiology, pharmacy, patient portal, telemedicine and (in 2026) a bounded AI clinical assistant.

Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

Healthcare & Clinical

Software inside the EMR that surfaces evidence-based guidance — drug interaction warnings, screening reminders, differential diagnoses — at the point of care.

DICOM

Healthcare & Clinical

The international standard for storing, transmitting, and displaying medical images — every CT, MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound runs on it.

E-Prescribing

Healthcare & Clinical

Issuing prescriptions electronically from the EMR to the patient's preferred pharmacy — with drug interaction checks, formulary lookup, and audit trail.

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