The safety of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems: what does EMR safety mean and how can we engineer safer systems?

Abstract

Information and communication technology is rapidly transforming modern health care systems. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) systems have replaced traditional forms of storing, processing, interpreting and exchanging patient health in many health care organizations. However, an increasing number of concerns are raised about the quality of EMR systems and industry regulators are pondering ways to ensure safer health information technologies. This paper discusses fundamental concepts associated with the safety of EMR systems, describes current approaches to regulating the industry, and discusses limitations of traditional safety engineering methods with respect to their application to EMR systems. We then present a domain-specific adaptation of Leveson's system-theoretic model STAMP for safety engineering of EMR systems and demonstrate its application with a real-world case study.