There is now considerable interest internationally in exploiting the potential of information communication technology (ICT) systems to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care. Given that the adoption of ICT systems by health care providers is some 25 to 30 years behind many other private and public sectors [1], there is an understandable sense of urgency with which these eHe...

BACKGROUND The electronic health record (EHR) is an important application of information and communication technologies to the healthcare sector. EHR implementation is expected to produce benefits for patients, professionals, organisations, and the population as a whole. These benefits cannot be achieved without the adoption of EHR by healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, the influence of ind...

Australia will implement a personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) over the next three to five years. Development of an e-health policy framework to support this initiative has involved healthcare providers and patients, but the discussion appears to have bypassed non-patient citizens. There is a risk that this omission may result in difficulties with implementation and uptake of...

In order to study the relationship between genes and diseases, the increasing availability and sharing of phenotypic and genotypic data have been promoted as an imperative within the scientific community. In parallel with data sharing practices by clinicians and researchers, recent initiatives have been observed in which individuals are sharing personal genomic data. The involvement of individu...

The integration of different administrative data sources from a number of European countries has been shown useful in the assessment of unwarranted variations in health care performance. This essay describes the procedures used to set up a data infrastructure (e.g., data access and exchange, definition of the minimum common wealth of data required, and the development of the relational logic da...

Electronic health records (EHRs) offer medical practices the potential for increased efficiency and profits. The license agreement controls the practice's relationship with the vendor. Understanding the implications of the license agreement will help a practice to evaluate an EHR that the practice may adopt. This article will focus on 10 specific questions to ask while evaluating the EHR licens...

e-Health requires the sharing of patient related data when and where necessary. Electronic health records promise to improve communication between health care providers, thus leading to better quality of patients' treatment and reduced costs. As highly sensitive patient information provides a promising goal (e.g., for attackers), there is an increasing social and political pressure to guarantee...

There is a national focus on electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchange to improve quality, efficiency, and safety across healthcare settings. The purpose of this study is to describe pharmacists' views and practices about the adoption and use of EHRs and the sharing of health information by pharmacists in the state of Nebraska. A U.S. mail survey of all pharmacists holdin...

Open global standards, workflow integration profiles, and related processes have been developed through consensus-based procedures. Although these standards and profiles should be augmented with additional therapeutic area-based content standards, they are available now to enable the use of electronic health records to directly support clinical research concurrent with patient care. Improving t...

OBJECTIVES This article discusses current planning activities in Austria after legislation has been passed to introduce the electronic health record (EHR). METHODS After describing similar activities in several other countries, the authors explore the current situation of healthcare telematics and imminent steps toward the implementation of a lifelong EHR. RESULTS Substantial efforts have b...