Term
| AMR (Ambulatory Medical Record) |
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Definition
| A computer system for storing, managing, and retrieving electronic patient health information in the outpatient setting. In the inpatient setting, it is often referred to as an electronic medical record (EMR). |
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Term
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Definition
| This term refers to the structure of an information system and how its pieces communicate and work together. Also see client/server and tiered architecture. |
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Term
| ASP (Application Service Provider) |
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Definition
| A business that deploys, hosts, and manages access to software applications for multiple parties from a central facility. The ASP charges a subscription fee to users of the applications, which are delivered over the Internet or other public or private networks. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service (SaaS). The most limited sense of this business is that of providing access to a particular application program (such as customer relationship management) using a standard protocol such as HTTP infrastructure that guides design, manufacturing and trade in the global economy. |
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Term
| CDS (Clinical Decision Support) |
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Definition
| Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) assist the physician in applying new information to patient care and help to prevent medical errors and improve patient safety. Many of these systems include computer-based programs that analyze information entered by the physician. |
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Term
| CIS (Clinical Information System) |
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Definition
| An Electronic Health record that is a clinical repository of patient data. The term CIS is sometimes used interchangeably with EMR. |
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Term
| CPOE (Computerized Provider Order Entry) |
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Definition
| A computer application that allows a physician's orders for diagnostic and treatment services (such as medications, laboratory, and other tests) to be entered electronically instead of being recorded on order sheets or prescription pads. The computer compares the order against standards for dosing, checks for allergies or interactions with other medications, and warns the physician about potential problems. |
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Term
| CRM (Customer Relationship Management) |
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Definition
| Information systems and software that enable an organization to manage customers in an organized way with the objective of building better customer relationships. |
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Term
| Decision Support Application |
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Definition
| A computer program that analyzes data and presents the information so that clinicians can make medical decisions more easily. Typical tasks of a decision support system include data storage, data analysis, predictive modeling, and risk-adjusted comparison of actual outcomes with predicted outcomes. |
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Term
| Data Synchronization/Data Syncing |
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Definition
| The process of sending updates between a mobile computing device and a personal computer or application server in order to keep both sets of files synchronized. Sometimes called “hot syncing.” Sometimes spelled “synch.” |
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Term
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Definition
| The practice by which pharmaceutical representatives market drugs to physicians. Some pharmas are turning to the Internet to perform detailing, with the ultimate goals of reduced cost and increased effectiveness. See e-detailing. |
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Term
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Definition
| The transcription of information from the original source into a machine readable form. Although keyboard entry is the most familiar, other fast-growing methods include scanners and speech recognition. |
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Term
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Definition
| Analyzing information in a database using tools that look for trends or anomalies without knowledge of the data's meaning. Mining a clinical database may produce new insights on outcomes, alternate treatments, or effects of treatment on different races and genders. |
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Term
| DSS (Decision-Support System) |
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Definition
| Computer tools or applications to assist physicians in clinical decisions by providing evidence-based knowledge in the context of patient specific data. Examples include drug interaction alerts at the time medication is prescribed and reminders for specific guideline-based interventions during the care of patients with chronic disease. Information should be presented in a patient-centric view of individual care and also in a population or aggregate view to support population management and quality improvement. |
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Term
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Definition
| A coordinated and proactive approach to managing care and support for patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. See also e-disease management. |
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Term
| EHR (Electronic Health Record) |
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Definition
| A real time patient health record with access to evidence-based decision support tools that can be used to aid clinicians in decision making. An EHR is a medical record or any other information relating to the past, present or future physical and mental health, or condition of a patient which resides in computers which capture, transmit, receive, store, retrieve, link, and manipulate multimedia data for the primary purpose of providing health care and health-related services. The EHR can also support the collection of data for uses other than clinical care, such as billing, quality management, outcome reporting, and public health disease surveillance and reporting. EHR records include patient demographics, progress notes, SOAP notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. |
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Term
| EMR (Electronic Medical Record) |
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Definition
| A computer-based patient medical record. An EMR facilitates access of patient data by clinical staff at any given location; accurate and complete claims processing by insurance companies; building automated checks for drug and allergy interactions; clinical notes; prescriptions; scheduling; sending to and viewing by labs; The term has become expanded to include systems which keep track of other relevant medical information. The practice management system is the medical office functions which support and surround the electronic medical record. |
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Term
| EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) |
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Definition
| An Enterprise Master Patient Index is a database that contains a unique identifier for every patient in the enterprise. This would include the medical center, outpatient clinics, practice offices and rehabilitation facilities. All registration systems would look to the EMPI to obtain patient information based upon several identifiers. Sometimes this is completed on the front end by having the registrar utilize the EMPI searching capabilities. In other instances it is done after the registration process is completed via the system. An EMPI will have either deterministic indexing where one can search based on an exact match of the combination of name, social security number, date of birth, and sex. The other searching mechanism is rules-based via the first 4 letters of the last name, or other key identifiers. |
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Term
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Definition
| Computer technology in which physicians use handheld or personal computer devices to review drug and formulary coverage and transmit prescriptions to a printer, EMR or pharmacy. ePrescribing software can be integrated with existing clinical information systems to allow access to patient-specific information to screen for drug interactions and allergies. |
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Term
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Definition
| Procurement (i.e. ordering, payment, etc.) of goods and services via the Internet. |
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Term
| HIE (Health Information Exchange) |
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Definition
| The movement of healthcare information electronically across organizations within a region or community. HIE provides the capability to electronically move clinical information between disparate healthcare information systems while maintaining the meaning of the information being exchanged. The goal of HIE is to facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data to provide safe, timely, efficient, effective, equitable, patient-centered care. HIE is also useful to Public Health authorities to assist in analyses of the health of the population. |
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Term
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Definition
| Use of physiologic monitors to assess patient status in the home. In some cases, results can be transmitted electronically to a case manager or physician. |
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Term
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Definition
| A special integration server that connects legacy systems by using a standard messaging protocol. Because hospitals and other healthcare providers usually have different systems for different aspects of services, they are often unable to communicate with each other. HL7 gets around that problem by providing the framework for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information. Interface engines typically provide functionality such as: guaranteed store and forward of messages, support for the HL7 standard, message translation (moving and modifying fields within the HL7 message message routing (messages received from one application and sent to many applications), a Graphical User Interface (GUI) based configuration and management tools, the ability to insert Alerts and monitoring. |
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Term
| Laboratory Information System |
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Definition
| Electronic Medical Records are repositories of patient data either entered directly or interfaced from external applications. One such application is a Laboratory Information System (LIS) that is typically used by hospital pathology departments to record activity in the department. |
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Term
| MPI (Master Patient Index) |
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Definition
| A database program that collects a patient’s various hospital identification numbers, e.g. from the blood lab, radiology department, and admissions, and keeps them under a single, enterprise-wide identification number. |
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Term
| PACS Picture Archiving & Communications System (also see RIS) |
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Definition
| In medical imaging, a PACS is a combination of hardware and software dedicated to the short and long term storage, retrieval, management, distribution, and presentation of images. Electronic images and reports are transmitted digitally via PACS; this eliminates the need to manually file, retrieve, or transport film jackets. The universal format for PACS image storage and transfer is DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine). Non-image data, such as scanned documents, may be incorporated using consumer industry standard formats like PDF (Portable Document Format), once encapsulated in DICOM. A PACS consists of four major components: the imaging modalities such as CT and MRI, a secured network for the transmission of patient information, workstations for interpreting and reviewing images, and archives for the storage and retrieval of images and reports. Combined with available and emerging Web technology, PACS has the ability to deliver timely and efficient access to images, interpretations, and related data. PACS breaks down the physical and time barriers associated with traditional film-based image retrieval, distribution, and display. |
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Term
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Definition
| Patient Portals are healthcare-related online applications that allow patients to interact and communicate with their healthcare providers, such as physicians and hospitals. Typically, portal services are available on the Internet at all hours of the day. Some patient portal applications exist as stand-alone web sites and sell their services to healthcare providers. Other portal applications are integrated into the existing web site of the healthcare provider. Still others are modules added onto an existing electronic medical record system. What all of these share is the ability of the patient to interact with their medical information via the Internet. |
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Term
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Definition
| The electronic means by which patient files are located to assist patients and clinicians to find test results, medical history, prescription data, and other health information. A record locator would act as a secure health information search tool. |
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Term
| PHR (Personal Health Record) |
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Definition
| An electronic application through which individuals can maintain and manage their health information (and that of others for whom they are authorized) in a private, secure, and confidential environment. This includes the data and applications that might range from iPhone to Internet-based sets of tools that allows people to access and coordinate their lifelong health information and make appropriate parts of it available to those who need it. |
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Term
| Pharmacy Information Management System |
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Definition
| Electronic Medical Records are repositories of patient data either entered directly or interfaced from external applications. One such application is a Pharmacy Information Management System (PIMS) that is typically used by hospital pharmacy departments to record activity in the department. |
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Term
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Definition
| This is a single, usually web-based, service that allows a practitioner to access a number of “point” information systems using such technologies as a single sign-on. The design of portals is to allow consistent access methods to applications that are based on significantly differing technologies. |
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Term
| Practice Management System (PMR/PMS) |
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Definition
| That portion of the medical office record which contains financial, demographic and non-medical information about patients. Especially in paper-based practices, a PMS is a class of computer applications used by health care providers to register and schedule patients, retain patient demographic and financial information, and to submit and manage claims with providers. |
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Term
| Radiology Information System |
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Definition
| Electronic Medical Records are repositories of patient data either entered directly or interfaced from external applications. One suchapplication is a Radiology Information System (RIS) that is typically used by hospital radiology departments to record activity in the department. |
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Term
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Definition
| These are (generally) specified data repositories on patients or conditions that include patient demographics, conditions, and treatments. Generally, registries began as disease-specific repositories to support the evolution of evidence-based research. Today, repository technology is used to capture health care information on defined groups of patients, diseases, and other dimensions of medical practice. |
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Term
| RLS Record Locator Service |
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Definition
| This is a key service provided by an HIE that allows health care entity information on their patients to remain decentralized. The RLS serves as an index on the location of patient records, and is invoked to assemble a comprehensive patient record when needed. It is also used to route patient health data transactions to physicians and entities authorized by the patient to receive such information. |
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Term
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Definition
| Coordinating the movement of goods, from the initial customer order to final delivery of products. Includes management of raw materials, supply, production and distribution, taking into account quality, cost, customer satisfaction and production speed. The Internet is frequently touted as a tool for improving the efficiency of supply chain management. |
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Term
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Definition
| The use of telecommunications and information technology to deliver health services and transmit health information over distance. Sometimes called telemedicine. |
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Term
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Definition
| A form of telemedicine that involves electronic transmission of radiographic patient images and consultative text. |
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