The question of who “owns” the information in a medical record has become a little fuzzier with the development of new technologies that allow clinical chart sharing between medical practitioners, and with sharing of that chart with patients.

Medical information systems need to talk to each other – whether that data sits in a physician’s ambulatory Electronic Health Record (EHR), or in a hospital system, or in a patient-centered Personal Health Record (PHR), the data should flow back and forth easily. That is...

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has developed criteria for Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). An HHS-certified EHR (and remember, there are no current HHS-certified EHRs, since that process is yet to be finalized), when used in a “meaningful”...

One of the questions that comes up when considering an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system is “can this EHR scale up to my sized practice?” A presumption is that “smaller” EHRs, which cater to small group and solo practices, would not fare well when deployed...

The deliberations of the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) are trying to build a platform where health data can be easily shared between appropriate stakeholders – physicians, patients, and others involved in healthcare – while maintaining privacy and security. The Federal Health Architecture (FHA)...