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
(Decision-Support System): 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
(Electronic Health Record): 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
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Definition
(Electronic Medical Record): 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
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Definition
(Enterprise Master Patient Index): 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
(Health Information Exchange): 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
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. Typical modules include:
� Pathology request and specimen registration;
� Request and specimen management;
� Result reporting;
� Blood bank; and
� Management reporting.
Electronic Medical Records typically integrate with Laboratory Information Systems
by:
� Creating and storing pathology request details in the Electronic Health Record
then sending them via HL7 to the Laboratory Information System;
� Storing pathology request details in the Electronic Health Record sent via HL7
from the Laboratory Information System;� Storing pathology specimen collection details in the Electronic Health Record;
� Storing pathology results in the Electronic Health Record sent via HL7 from the
Laboratory Information System; and
� Storing blood product requests then sending them via HL7 to the Laboratory
Information System, storing production allocation in the Electronic Health
Record sent via HL7 from the Laboratory Information. Recording blood
product administration in the Electronic Health Record. Pathology
investigations generated from the LIS may be initially stored in an
intermediate EMR and then sent to an EHR as part of an EHR extract
such as a discharge summary. |
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Term
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Definition
(Master Patient Index): 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
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Definition
(Master Patient Index): 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
(Personal Health Record): 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
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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 |
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Definition
(PMR/PMS): 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
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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
(Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology): A voluntary,
private-sector organization launched in 2004 to certify health information technology
(HIT) products such as electronic health records and the networks over which they
interoperate. CCHIT is an ONC Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB)
based on the Final Rule issued by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), US
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in July 2010 to qualify EHR
technology for ARRA. See www.cchit.org |
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Term
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Definition
(Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine): a heavily used standard
for representing and communicating radiology images and reporting; documents are
used to communicate documents such as physician notes and other material. |
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Term
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Definition
Health Level 7: Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a notfor-profi t, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a
comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing,
and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the
management, delivery and evaluation of health services. |
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Term
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Definition
(Hypertext Transfer Protocol): A language protocol used in communication
among Web sites. When http appears as part of a Web site URL, it indicates to Web
browsers, “HTML spoken here.” |
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Term
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Definition
Compatibility: The ability of software and hardware on multiple
pieces of equipment made by different companies or manufacturers to communicate
and work together. |
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Term
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Definition
(Standards Development Organization): An organization that develops standards
to provide stability and consistency for a product or service in hopes of lowering costs
and maintaining or improving quality. |
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Term
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Definition
(Standards and Interoperability Framework): The Standards and
Interoperability (S&I) Framework is a set of integrated functions, processes, and tools
being guided by the healthcare and technology industry to achieve harmonized
interoperability for healthcare information exchange |
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Term
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Definition
The ability to add users and increase the capabilities of an application
without having to making significant changes to the application software or the system on which it runs |
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Term
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Definition
Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software,
and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the
electricity grid. |
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Term
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Definition
(Infrastructure as a Service): Rather than purchasing servers, software,
data-center space or network equipment, clients instead buy those resources as
a fully outsourced service. Suppliers typically bill such services on a utility
computing basis; the amount of resources consumed (and therefore the cost) will
typically reflect the level of activity. |
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Term
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Definition
(Platform as a Service): s the delivery of a computing platform and solution
stack as a service. PaaS offerings facilitate deployment of applications withoutthe cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and
software and provisioning hosting capabilities, providing all of the facilities
required to support the complete life cycle of building and delivering web
applications and services entirely available from the Internet. |
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Term
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Definition
(Software as a Service): sometimes referred to as "on-demand software,"
is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted
centrally (typically in the (Internet) cloud) and are typically accessed by users
using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet. |
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Term
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Definition
(Meaningful Use Criteria): These are the ways in which practitioners must use
federally-certified EHR products in order to secure EHR incentive program payments
from either Medicare or Medicaid. |
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Term
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Definition
Service Level Agreement: A contract between a service provider and a user that
specifies the level of service expected during a contract term. Service level agreements
determine how performance will be measured and, in the event of underperformance,
how the penalties will be calculated and paid |
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Term
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Definition
A phrase coined to describe the gap between people who have access
to modern information technology, particularly computers and the Internet, and those
who lack such access--or the skills to exploit it. |
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Term
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Definition
Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical
Health Act: This is Title XIII of the ARRA of 2009 which legislatively created the Office
of the National Coordinator, its funding, and the associated policy groups on HIT. |
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Term
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Definition
(Office of the National Coordinator): Is a government agency (part of HHS) that
oversees and encourages the development of a national, interoperable (compatible)
health information technology system to improve the quality and efficiency of health
care. See www.hhs.gov/healthit/ |
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Term
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Definition
An existing IT system or application, often built around a mainframe
computer, which generally has been in place for a long time and represents a significant
investment. Compatibility with legacy systems is often a major issue when considering
new applications. |
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Term
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Definition
(A Regional Health Information Organization): Is a multi-stakeholder
organization that enables the exchange and use of health information, in a secure
manner, for the purpose of promoting the improvement of health quality, safety and
efficiency. Officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) see
RHIOs as the building blocks for the National Health Information Network (NHIN). When
complete the NHIN will provide universal access to electronic health records. |
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