Understanding What PDF Healthcare Represents

Healthcare organizations are trying to make the transition towards a more precise and systematic method of saving and accessing patient medical information and Electronic Health Record or EHR systems are gaining prominence. However, there is a lot of anxiety regarding the compatibility of EHR systems with the functional preferences of healthcare management professionals and their ability to provide an effortless user interface. In a way, these apprehensions are not misplaced since many EHR technologies do represent a certain degree of complex functionality. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that among the many EHR methodologies that have been used, one has evolved as truly practical and offers the most undemanding set of functions — PDF Healthcare.

PDF and PDF Healthcare are Different
PDF or Portable Document Format is an international-recognized, ISO-approved published standard that was created by Adobe Systems, Inc. However, PDF Healthcare merely focuses upon solving some specific requirements of saving and accessing medical patient records by creating a medium of information exchange and storage that is practical and undemanding. The PDF form of health record storage and access is simply a medium wherein documents can be securely exchanged and viewed across healthcare organizations, medical care professionals and the patients. This includes safely transmitting health information of every kind, including prescription documents, clinical notes, test reports, scanned images, X-ray images, photographs, etc that are deemed vital to an individual’s medical record. Further, the advantages of PDF Healthcare are now being endorsed by reputed organizations such as the ASTM and AIIM.

PDF Healthcare Committee
In order to ensure that PDF Healthcare is able to maintains its individually and propagate itself as the best-possible medium for saving/sharing patient health information, a voluntary PDF Healthcare Committee has been created. As a part of its core purposes, this Committee wants to emphasize how PDF Healthcare is a one-stop solution for creating a structured health information resource. As a result of this initiative, the PDF Healthcare Best Practices Guide and Implementation was published in 2008.

PDF Healthcare Best Practices Guide
This Guide explains the features of using PDF as a mode to facilitate the storage and exchange of healthcare information. The Best Practices Guide also explores the best means that can be incorporated towards making the digital healthcare information transition, i.e. use of electronic medical patient records, easier along with listing the advantages of using an XML-based information exchange platform. Along with the Best Practices Guide, a Sample Implementation Guide has also been introduced that contains additional information such as examples of PDF compatibility that have been achieved by among internationally-recognized healthcare standards such as the Continuity of Care Record (CCR).