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Legislators Blast Lack of Free Flow of Information with Electronic Health Records

Congressional leaders blasted the lack of interoperability between different vendors' electronic health records systems, Politico reports. The harshest criticism came from "Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who charged that Verona, Wis.-based Epic Systems, the leading EHR company, was operating 'closed platforms' that did not allow information to easily flow into and out of its electronic health records systems," Politico further reports. Epic is the most highly used electronic health record system, Politico also reports.

The issue of interoperability is a big one with electronic health records: if different systems can't talk to each other, then patients can't benefit from having information that is portable between different healthcare providers or readily available if they need emergency care while traveling.