Health ministry notifies Electronic Health Records standards 2016

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry has notified the Electronic Health Records (EHR) standards 2016 with an aim to introduce a uniform system for creation and maintenance of health records by healthcare providers.

The health ministry said the idea that any person in the country can go to any healthcare provider, medical practitioner or pharmacy and access fully integrated health records in electronic format is the vision for "efficient" 21st century healthcare delivery.

"With an objective to introduce a uniform stand ard based system for creation and maintenance of EHRs by healthcare providers, the Health Ministry notified EHR standards for India in 2013.

"With passage of time, EHR standards 2013 have been duly revised in line with contemporary developments in consultation with stakeholders. Accordingly, EHR standards 2016 document is notified and placed for adoption in IT systems by healthcare institutions and providers across the country," a circular by the ministry said.

The ministry said while notifying the 2013 standards it was understood that they will continue to evolve and will require revision from time to time.

The present standards represent the recommendations of the expert committee constituted by the health ministry to review the earlier notified set of standards.

These standards provide a structured overview of the key EHR standards with respect to the country's healthcare system.

"For every aspect of data or information that is part of any healthcare record system has been addressed with a short guideline regarding implementation specific to the item-in-context included.

"Various non-related recommendations from previous edition have been removed to streamline the set of standards selected and achieve harmony among them," the document said.

"A detailed recommendation on the interoperability and standards, clinical informatics standards, data ownership, privacy and security aspects, and the various coding systems are also provided," it said.