A Holistic Approach for the Delivery of the Integrated Electronic Health Record within a Regional Health Information Network

Within a changing healthcare environment, characterized by increased patient mobility, emphasis is placed on prevention and early detection. Efficient access to the Integrated Electronic Health Record (I-EHR) of the citizen is considered the cornerstone for the support of continuity of care, the reduction of avoidable mistakes, and for the provision of tools and methods to support evidence-based medicine. This work presents all the aspects related to the delivery of an I-EHR, focusing on the technological infrastructure required to deliver advanced I-EHR services within a Regional Health Information Network (RHIN), and across the boundaries of the healthcare organizations it consists of, by implementing World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) technologies. The underlying Health Information Infrastructure (HII) is described, together with the HYGEIAnet I-EHR, as developed on the RHIN of Crete, in Greece.