Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records
Core concepts
Know the architecture of EHRs: clinical data repository, order entry, results reporting, scheduling, billing, and the master patient index. Distinguish EHR (enterprise) from EMR (encounter/organization) and PHR (patient-controlled). Understand CPOE, eMAR, barcode medication administration, and how these integrate with pharmacy systems. Learn data models: HL7 v2 messages, FHIR resources, and the role of terminology (SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, ICD-10). Understand downtime procedures, disaster recovery, and the difference between high availability and business continuity.
Traps
Questions blur the line between an EHR and a data warehouse; the warehouse is for analytics, not care delivery. Another trap: assuming FHIR replaces HL7 v2 - it supplements it. Also watch for confusion between interface engines (routing) and integration engines (transformation).
Rule of thumb
Map each clinical workflow to the system function that supports it; if the function does not exist, the workflow has a gap, not a training problem.
Worked example
A clinician cannot find a prior lab result. Trace the data path: source lab → interface → repository → viewer. The failure could be at any step; downtime procedures must cover the viewer outage.