Glossary
EHR vs EMR: the difference, in India's own definitions Where one ends and the other begins, where a PHR fits, and which a small clinic needs.
Two terms that software brochures use as if they were the same. India's EHR Standards keep them apart. Here is the line between them, the third term people mix in (PHR), and what it means for a clinic choosing software.
Published · Last reviewed · 3 min read
- The MoHFW EHR Standards 2016 call the EMR a "special case of the EHR, restricted in scope to the medical domain".
- The EHR's stated purpose is "life-long, effective, high quality and safe integrated healthcare", which needs records from many providers.
- A PHR is started and kept by the patient. A clinic keeps an EMR.
An EMR (electronic medical record) is one provider's electronic record of a patient; an EHR (electronic health record) joins a person's health records from many providers into one life-long record. Put simply, the clinic owns an EMR of its own visits, and an EHR is what you get when the records of that clinic, the lab, the hospital and the next clinic are joined up around one person. For the EMR on its own, see EMR meaning.
What is the difference between EHR and EMR?
Scope and time. The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Standards for India, 2016, from the Health Ministry's e-Health Division, define the EHR as repositories of information "relevant to the wellness, health and healthcare of an individual, capable of being stored and communicated securely and of being accessible by multiple authorized users", with a primary purpose of "the support of life-long, effective, high quality and safe integrated healthcare". The EMR, in the same glossary, "could be considered as special case of the EHR, restricted in scope to the medical domain or at least very much medically focused".
| EMR | EHR | PHR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Held by | One provider: a department, a hospital or a clinic | Many providers, joined up | "initiated and maintained by an individual" |
| Scope | "medically focused" | "wellness, health and healthcare" | A summary of "the health and medical history" |
| Time span | That provider's visits | "life-long" | Not stated |
| Who can open it | That provider | "multiple authorized users" | "only the individual, or people authorized by the individual" |
Where does an EMR end and an EHR begin?
The Standards quote a five-level ladder from the Japanese Association of Healthcare Information Systems (JAHIS) that makes the boundary clear:
- Departmental EMR: one hospital department's information, such as pathology or radiology.
- Inter-departmental EMR: two or more departments of one hospital.
- Hospital EMR: a patient's clinical information from one hospital.
- Inter-hospital EMR: information from two or more hospitals.
- EHR: "longitudinal collection of health information from all sources".
A single clinic's record sits at the level of one provider. It becomes part of an EHR only when it is shared with and joined to records held elsewhere.
What is a PHR, and how is it different?
A PHR (personal health record) belongs to the patient. The Standards say it "is typically a health record that is initiated and maintained by an individual", and that an ideal PHR would gather "data from many sources" into a complete summary. The difference from an EMR is who keeps it: the patient, not the clinic.
Which one does a small clinic need?
An EMR. Take Sunrise Clinic, a sample single-doctor clinic. When a patient returns after three months, the doctor needs that patient's earlier visits at this clinic on screen: complaints, diagnosis, the last prescription. That is an EMR. The patient's discharge summary from a city hospital is part of their wider EHR, and today it reaches the clinic on paper or on the patient's phone.
Vitels keeps the EMR for one clinic: every visit in the patient's history, any past prescription repeatable, and corrections kept as new versions with the earlier one still there, as the Standards ask. It does not link records to ABHA or exchange them with other providers today. See the EMR software page, and our HIS, HMS, HMIS, EMR and EHR explainer for the hospital terms.
Questions
Is EHR the same as EMR?
No. In the MoHFW EHR Standards 2016, the EMR is a special case of the EHR, focused on the medical domain and held by one provider. The EHR gathers a person's records from many sources with the aim of life-long care.
Which is bigger, EHR or EMR?
The EHR. In the JAHIS ladder quoted by the Standards, EMRs grow from one department to one hospital to several hospitals, and the EHR sits at the top as the collection of health information from all sources.
Is a PHR an EHR?
Not in the Standards' terms. A PHR is started and maintained by the individual. It may gather data from many sources, like an EHR, but the person controls it rather than a provider.
Do the EHR Standards make an EMR compulsory?
No. The Standards describe themselves as recommendations and say they do not cater to administrative, legal or regulatory scenarios. Whether a clinic must keep records electronically is covered in our post on whether EMR is mandatory.
Sources
Drafted with AI assistance; every fact checked against the sources listed; reviewed by Shaurya Pratap Singh.