-
The 1950's
In the healthcare field, computers were used for financial/accounting purposes. Computers were very large, an impractical size taking up entire rooms. -
The 1960's
In the 60's, computers were becoming more widely used in healthcare institutions. The Computer Stored Ambulatory Record System (COSTAR) was created at Massachusetts General Hospital in the late 60's. -
The 1970's
There were even more technological advances made in the 70's. Lockheed Corporation created Eclipsys in 1971 which was a physician ordering system for El Camino Hospital in California. -
The 1980's
In the 80's new networking and interface technologies were created and used to connect computers. These brand new technologies were widely adopted across the nation and led to the creation of Health Level 7 (HL7) which was a huge step in healthcare data software applications. -
The 1990's
The use of EHR systems were more widespread throughout the nation. In 1991 the Institute of Medicine published the Computer Based Patient Record: an Essential Technology for Healthcare. The expensiveness of EHRs was still a big concern to healthcare facilities, but they were becoming more and more common. -
2000's
The final rules and regulations of HIPAA are being finalized. President Bush establishes the position of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. In 2009, the HITECH act is passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This provided help to physicians and health care institutions to implement EHR's. -
2010 - Present
In 2015, studies showed that EHR adoption doubled since 2008. It is predicted that the Health Information field has a bright future, and will end up spending close to $1.5 trillion dollars on technology.
