Health IT professionals mistakenly believe that an electronic document management system (EDMS) is for document imaging. This is akin to computer-based patient record (CPR) being confused as a clinical data repository. EDMS is an electronic system that manages documents, which are preserved “containers” of data or interpretable information. This can include hand-written documents, films and photographs, computer-generated diagnostic images, audio and video clips, and more. The commonly used Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS) is an example. Other examples of integrated component technologies are document imaging and retrieval, and enterprise report management (ERM). Examples of patent record CPR are electronic patient record (EPR) and electronic health record (EHR).
Health care IT professionals are also not comprehending documents and their management until they are involved with them. Unstructured data in documents can still be handled as structured data partners. Structured data is discrete, such as automated laboratory data. Unstructured data could be transcribed patient radiology reports. Diagnostic image data could be a digitized x-ray that is stored as bit mapped data. Other document images are bit mapped as well.
