EMR vs. EHR – What is the Difference?

EMR vs. EHR – What is the Difference?: EMR vs. EHR – What is the Difference?
Posted by Matthew Smith on Tue, Jan 14, 2014 @ 12:21 PM

 What’s in a word? Or, even one letter of an acronym?
Some people use the terms “electronic medical record” and “electronic health record” (or “EMR” and “EHR”) interchangeably. But at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), you’ll notice they use electronic health record or EHR almost exclusively. While it may seem a little picky at first, the difference between the two terms is actually quite significant.The EMR term came along first, and indeed, early EMRs were “medical.” They were for use by clinicians mostly for diagnosis and treatment.
In contrast, “health” relates to “The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; especially…freedom from physical disease or pain…the general condition of the body.” The word “health” covers a lot more territory than the word “medical.” And EHRs go a lot further than EMRs.