Electronic Health Records: A Transitional View: Healthcare Transformation

The electronic health record (EHR) is an unavoidable and vital tool for the medical and behavioral health professionals. It is difficult to imagine what patient care would appear like today without EHRs, especially when these systems substitute the paper record maintenance procedures. Documenting medical records of patient data which included the nature of disease, symptoms, treatments, and medicines prescribed started at the very early age of Egyptians. Nowadays, the health record has evolved to a far extent that with any one patient ID, the entire medical history of the patient can be retrieved by the consulting physicians. This chapter's evolution of EHR comprises the history and evolution of the health record system starting from the Egyptian era where the first health record was written till the computer health record system. This chapter also includes various documentation procedures for the health records that were followed from the ancient times and contributions by various civilizations around the world.