System Safety in Healthcare: Electronic Medical Record Assimilation and Integration

Maria Escano; Dev Raheja

doi:10.56094/jss.v53i2.88

Authors

Maria C. Escano, M.D.
Dev Raheja

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56094/jss.v53i2.88

Keywords:

medical record, EMR, data integration, data standardization

Abstract

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are the digital version of paper charts. They are the electronic record of an individual’s health-related information that is created, gathered, managed, and consulted by licensed clinicians and staff [Refs. 1-3]. This article will focus on some of the challenges of health record integration between often disparate systems — internally, across a mix of systems, or externally, such as entities ranging from federal and state agencies, insurance companies, physician practices, medical facilities and pharmacies. The challenges of data collection, assimilation and integration remain at the forefront of our electronic medical record era [Refs. 1, 6-9]. Seamlessly moving information across disparate information systems becomes even more challenging when the data involves confidential medical information.

Author Biographies

Maria C. Escano, M.D.

Dr. Maria C. Escano completed her medical degree at University of Miami School of Medicine. She received her post-graduate training at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed her advanced trauma surgery fellowship at R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.

She has been a regular contributor to scholarly journals for many years and has presented across the country on various topics advocating systems and patient safety initiatives. Dr. Escano is also an extensive traveler, having forged friendships across six continents.

Dev Raheja

Mr. Dev Raheja has been a System Safety and System Reliability Engineering consultant for over 25 years. His range of consulting encompasses transportation systems, electric power systems, high tech industry, aerospace, defense systems, medical systems, and consumer products. He has conducted training in several countries including Sweden, Australia, Japan, UK, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Singapore, Brazil, South Africa, and Canada. He has done training and consulting work with NASA, U.S. Army, GM, Boeing, Eaton, Nissan Aerospace, Litton, General Dynamics, ITT, BAE Systems, Lockheed-Martin, Harley-Davidson, and United Technologies.

Prior to consulting, Mr. Raheja worked at General Electric, Cooper Industries, and at Booz-Allen & Hamilton. He is the author of several books including Assurance Technologies Principles and Practices (Second Edition, Wiley 2006), and Design for Reliability (Wiley, 2012). A Fellow of the System Safety Society, he has a received Scientific Achievement Award and the Educator-of the-Year Award from the society.

Mr. Raheja serves on the Patient and Families Advisory Council at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a patient safety advocate. He is Associate Editor for Healthcare Safety for The Journal of System Safety and an Associate Professor at University of Maryland where he teaches the “Design For Reliability” course which includes design for safety and trustworthiness.