From Electronic Health Records to Digital Health Biographies

Electronic health records (EHRs) are widely perceived as having great potential for improving the quality of healthcare and diminishing the costs of that care. Present-day EHRs, however, are widely perceived as disappointing. Many doctors consider them time- and money-wasting nuisances that interfere with their interactions with patients. This paper explores how and why potential and reality diverge. We lay out a dozen broad principles for creating a new generation of EHRs that fulfill their long-hypothesized promise. To emphasize the magnitude of the difference between our proposal and today’s EHRs and to simplify the narrative, we use the label “digital health biographies” (DHBs) for the alternative we envision.