The History of Electronic Health Records (EHR)

October 12, 2011 by 3 Comments

By Matthew Kopetsky

Hippocrates mandated the first known medical records in the fifth centry B.C. so that records could be passed on to other physicians. 2400 years later, medical records went digital. Today, the Electronic Health Records (EHR) market is very complex (the Electronic Medical Records [EMR] market even more so). On a regular basis I try to help the Health Systems that I work with to determine if their current system is effective enough and which software program can provide their operational silver bullet. How did we get here? To better answer this question, I created the following timeline, summarizing the humble, yet revolutionary, beginnings of Electronic Health Records.

EHR History Timeline

The History of Electronic Health Records (EHR) Development Timeline

Sources:

  1. Epic Systems: An Epic timeline
  2. Problem-Oriented Medical Information Systems
  3. Medical Records that Guide and Teach (Weed)
  4. NASBHC – History of EMR
  5. NIH – Electronic Health Records Overview
  6. Computer Stored Ambulatory Record (COSTAR)
  7. Regenstrief Medical Record System (RMRS)
  8. The Medical Record (TMR)
  9. THERESA
  10. Composite Health Care System
  11. VistA
  12. Technicon Data Systems
  13. Allscripts
  14. eClinicalWorks News
 Readers: If EMRs have been around since the 60’s, why is it taking so long to fully integrate electronic health information management into the care environment?

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