KIHASA has published Health and Welfare Issue & Focus, No. 432, "Policy Implications from Selected Countries for Promoting EMR Certification in Korea." The lead researcher of the research this brief summarizes is Juha Baek, an associate research fellow of the Center for Health Insurance Research, KIHASA.

It is important to expand EMR (Electronic Medical Record) Certification Systems throughout the country as they enable medical records created and held by individual medical institutions to be shared without much hindrance between each other in a mutually compatible EHR (Electronic Health Record) format through the standardization of medical data, said Juha Baek, an associate research fellow of KIHASA. "EMR certification must be expanded as it helps improve the quality of medical services by inducing system innovations and effiency gains. In addition, standardizing data through EMR Certification would be essential to the government's initiatives to promote the free exchange and use of health data through platforms such as the health information highway, and to build an infrastructure for national information sharing."

He then stressed the critical need for expanding the participation of hospitals and clinics, which account for about 99 % of health institutions in Korea, in EMR certification in establishing the certification systems in Korea and thus increasing the use of standardized data.

Click here for the English translation of this issue.