Centralized electronic health records benefit emergency medicine

Citing British government reports that recommend abandoning their centralized electronic health records (EHRs) project, Paul Christopher Webster continues his assertion that Canada Health Infoway’s vision of a centralized national health database is “not feasible.”1,2 However, focusing on the failures of EHRs may lead people to believe that all enterprise digital health solutions are doomed to fail. Although a national top-down–driven EHR system may not work, electronic medical records (EMRs) may be a valuable part of the future of health care in Canada and may become a workable surrogate for an EHR system.