It seems Epic’s Judy Faulkner is killing the EHR. In a recent HealthCareIT News piece she explained 3 reasons why the EHR is giving way to the Comprehensive Health Record, or CHR.
“The first is that there’s information that’s not in the EHRs now. The second one is care that is not in the hospital but has to be part of the picture,” she said. “We bring them in the Comprehensive Health Record which should be the comprehensive health record – social and community care. And the last is traditional healthcare within the walls that has now moved out of the walls.”
The CHR, as envisioned by Faulkner, would include other more critical chunks of data such as social determinants, nutrition, sleep and geography.
Expect Judy to take heat over this one, because that’s just what people do when Epic moves to improve itself. But it makes a whole lot of sense – not the heat, the CHR. Because we have a bad habit of seeing the EHR as an electronic paper record – a place to stockpile the details of past medical encounters. But the future of health is real-time. Epic is moving ahead of the curve by suggesting that the CHR can move us closer to a living, breathing space for health.
Let’s see if they execute.
If you like this CHR post, you may like these:
Epic and a Tale of Two Offices – What it’s like to connect under the same EHR.
The Illusion of Empowerment – A close encounter between Judy Faulkner and Joe Biden.
EHRs and the Problem of Efficiency – How EHRs can make us too efficient.