Nadeem Abeed Hussain

A health information system (HIS) refers to a system designed to manage healthcare data. This includes systems that collect, store, manage and transmit a patient’s electronic medical record (EMR), a hospital’s operational management or a system supporting healthcare policy decisions.

It acts as a centralized database whereby all the information related to patients, doctors, and staff is collected and stored. Thus, healthcare professionals can offer a quick diagnosis by visiting a patient’s health information whenever they want.

It also includes systems that handle data related to the hospital’s operational management or healthcare policy decisions.

Types of HIS:

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR):

These two terms are almost used interchangeably. The electronic medical record replaces the paper version of a patient’s medical history. The electronic health record includes more health data, test results, and treatments. This electronic database lets you maintain your patient’s record by entering data like contact details, test results, treatment history, and more. In fact, it enables easy sharing of information to another EHR system so that different healthcare providers can access the patient’s system.

Practice Management Software:

Practice management software helps healthcare providers manage daily operations such as scheduling and billing. Healthcare providers, from small practices to hospitals, use practice management systems to automate many of the administrative tasks.

Patient Portals:

Patient portals allow patients to access their personal health data such as appointment information and medications over an internet connection. Furthermore, it enables them to receive their lab results over the portal and have active communication with their healthcare professionals and pharmacists.

Master Patient Index (MPI):

A master patient index connects separate patient records across databases. The index has a record for each patient that is registered at a healthcare organization and indexes all other records for that patient. MPIs are used to reduce duplicate patient records and inaccurate patient information.

Clinical Decision Support (CDS):

CDS analyses data from various clinical and administrative systems. It helps health care make informed clinical decisions. These data are used in preparing for diagnosis and predict medical events like drug interactions.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM):

RPM allows medical sensors to send patient data to healthcare professionals. It frequently monitors blood glucose levels and blood pressure for patients with chronic conditions. The data is used to detect medical events that require intervention and can possibly become part of a larger population health study.

Health information systems tend to target efficiency and data management. The main drivers of health information systems are data analytics, collaborative care, cost control and population health management.