EHR Ecosystem

This chapter outlines the challenges of providing accurate and timely health information as a way to improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. The last decades experience shows that computerization alone does not improve quality and safety. In order to achieve the expected effectiveness and a positive return on the investment, EHR should be transform in a clinical workflow management system with built in decision support system. These require adoption of business process management technologies that have to be aware of the detailed context of each individual patient.

There are many challenges which diminish the impact of information technology on healthcare, among them, the limited interoperability, technological barrier for most of the elderly people, security, privacy and trust issues. An overview of the methods and tools able to overcome those limitations are presented, including the use of standards for EHR architecture and communication, the progress in terminology and classification systems adoption and the ways to overcome the security threats.