Electronic Health & Medical Records
You say “Electronic Health Records” I say “Electronic Medical Records.” What is the difference? It turns out there is a difference, and at ONC we are working on changing the conversation around each of those terms. We’ll highlight recent news articles and online conversations where the author has used the terms in ways that we believe are limiting or in ways that cause confusion, and will work to provide clarity around how each term should be used to move America toward a future where our health is managed digitally.
Latest Blog Posts
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The Power of the Blue Button
In August 2010, just 25 months ago, President Obama announced that the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was going to make Veterans’ personal health records available to them online with something called the “Blue Button.” Blue Button is an incredibly simple idea. It puts electronic information in the hands of patients—safely, reliably, and conveniently. -
Engaging Patients Early: The “VDT Now” Twitter Pledge
Last week, ONC kicked off National Health IT Week with the Consumer HealthIT Summit, a celebration of progress in consumer engagement through health IT, and an opportunity to catalyze yet more action among stakeholders such as patients, providers, payers, IT developers, consumer advocacy organizations, and electronic health record (EHR) vendors in the near future. A few highlights:
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Nurses, “Ask for YOUR e-Health Record!”
As the 2012 National Health IT Week begins, we’d like to call on the 3.2 million registered nurses across the nation and the important roles they serve everyday as caregivers, advocates, educators, and health consumers to take action in their own health. In support of ONC’s Consumer e-Health Program, the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) and American Nurses Association (ANA) have been working with ONC to engage the nation’s nurses to help patients get more involved in their health and health care by asking them to be more involved patients themselves. In 2011, ANI and ANA joined leaders from the private and public sector and across government at ONC’s inaugural Consumer Health IT Summit event and made pledges in support of ONC’s Consumer Pledge Program. (See full ANI
and ANA
