Let’s call it EHS!

Doctors are widely using EHRs in different clinical specialties and sub-specialties. In a 2018 survey of physicians by Deloitte, only 10% accepted their current EHR systems.  The rest wanted at least one area improved. Different studies have reported mixed findings, and a significant result is reasonably consistent: doctors are not satisfied with their EHR systems, EHR is a place to store data or a digital filing cabinet.

The biggest complaint is that the diagnosis and treatment flow in EHRs does not follow the thought process of a doctor, most times, it is the other way around where the doctor has to follow the flow of the EHR. 

Doctors have to spend time clicking and search around. What is EHR’s competitive advantage if it cannot easily search and display patient information for diagnosis process and treatment plan?

Modern EHR is wrongly defined by its legacy name, R (for the record) does not reflect its role in medical practice, and R also blocks innovative thinking as a solution. We should call EHS (Electronic Health Solution)

The thinking design of EHS must have the capability to support the diagnostic process. In particular, support the providers involved in the diagnostic process and reduce potential errors.

The researchers have described the critical attributes of safe EHS, including:

• Easy retrieval of accurate, timely, and reliable native and imported data;
• Simple and intuitive data displays;
• Easy navigation;
• Evidence at the point of care to aid decision making;
• Enhancements to workflow, automating mundane tasks and streamlining work, never increasing physical or cognitive workload.

The thinking design of an EHS must provide a continuous treatment plan function. The treatment plan is a set of actions at a defined period for the clinical objectives of a patient.  Doctors want to track the progress and alter it as it goes along. Especially for personalized medicine, the doctor or case manager must have the ability to allocate a treatment plan and monitor each patient’s process.  Most EHR systems have a treatment plan function but not a patient-specific plan; there is no cohort management function for the case manager.

A thinking design of EHS thinks about the user interfaces to a deeper level, i.e., be intuitive and straightforward. A typical example of a design concept is to bold the data-fields rather than the label fields.  It is simple and makes sense.  Doctors are looking at the EHR screen all the time in daily practice, and they know where the label “Gender” or “Name” is.  There is no need to see the labels in bold all the time. Instead, they need to see the data in bold so that they can glance at it once.

EHR has come a long way but still has a long way to go. It is time to transform from ‘record’ to ‘solution’ thinking. EHS is a solution to traditional EHR, and it is to build a platform for clinical intelligence; it is a tool for formulating personalized care paths that everyone uses.