Electronic health records or EHR as they are referred to, are records of all information of patients maintained in a digital format instead of records on paper. These digital records are made available to physicians immediately at the time of need and are maintained securely.

EHRs mainly are composed of a patient’s medical history, treatments provided, allergies, laboratory and diagnostic tests. These records can be shared with other providers immediately by the authorised persons if and when the need arises. This helps in the appropriate treatment being provided to the patient sooner without any unnecessary delays. It contains all the history related to a patient’s care and will provide a thorough understanding of a patient’s condition without any information going amiss.

EHRs are the way to go in the future with many hospitals/healthcare providers already adopting this technology and the existing records in paper formats are also being transferred to EHRs. This has proved to be advantageous for healthcare providers in cutting down maintenance costs for paper records and also takes away the need for physical space for their maintenance and upkeep.