All termsSystems
EMR / EHR
An Electronic Medical/Health Record — the clinical system of record for patient demographics, encounters, orders, and results across the organization.
When to use it
The EMR is usually the source of patient identity and orders, and the destination for results, in most integrations.
In plain terms
The patient master file that every other system checks against and reports back to.
Common gotchas
- The EMR is the usual source of truth for identity — mismatched MRNs downstream trace back here.
- "EMR" and "EHR" are used interchangeably in practice.
- Modern EMRs expose FHIR APIs alongside legacy HL7 v2 feeds; pick per interface.