What if Apple Reimagined the Electronic Health Record?

Thirty-six billion dollars and over a decade later, the HITECH Act signed by President Obama to motivate the implementation of electronic health records (EHR) in the U.S. created some unintended consequences. The goal of increasing EHR adoption by physicians, whether it be in the hospital, ambulatory or medical practice settings that they work in, has largely been achieved, with nearly 90% adoption across these settings. The goal of moving from paper records to digitizing the medical record by physician documentation of the patient encounter through the EHR is another return on this investment. 

Additionally, physicians use EHRs to order billions of dollars of laboratory tests, diagnostic imaging exams and medications for their patients every year. The EHR is streamlining these processes for both patients and clinicians, as well as allowing for closed-loop integration of the results back into the EHR to create a holistic picture of a patient's visit. One could argue that EHRs created the digital foundation and that Covid was a catalyst for the aggressive adoption of digital health applications today, including virtual care, patient apps, remote monitoring devices and more.