Standard electronic health record (EHR) framework for Indian healthcare system

Abstract

Digitization of health records in public health facility and its instant availability in the form of electronic records anywhere any time health service is yet to be implemented in developing nations like India and other countries. In India, patient care is mainly delivered through 3 levels namely Primary/Community Healthcare Centre (PHC/CHC), Secondary healthcare centre (District Hospital), and Tertiary Healthcare Centre (National level). The healthcare facilities face many challenges in collecting, processing, and storing these data and managing it without compromising security and privacy. Presently, some of the secondary and tertiary care facilities have started implementing healthcare IT application in terms of Hospital Information System, Hospital Management Information System, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) etc. to manage the patient data in electronic format. However, these systems are developed by different vendors by using different programming languages and databases. This approach makes the system unique but the patient details remains in the same hospital and cannot be shared with other hospitals when patient moves from one hospital to other for advanced or specialized treatment. This is because the data is not interoperable and semantic. In the proposed work, a standard secure Electronic Health Record(EHR) framework is developed using standard medical terminology and coding standards. Implementation of EHR framework for Indian health system will improve the work-flow of health services to the population. EHR at all levels of healthcare system enable efficient and continuous care to the patient.