Electronic health records (EHRs) have made life easier for cardiologists by capturing patient medical information and sharing it easily. However, Medicare reimbursement cuts and administrative burdens have made private practice difficult for cardiologists. EHRs can help cardiologists manage tasks more efficiently by tracking medical and administrative activities, understanding patients' medical histories and conditions, and examining the heart. While EHRs assist cardiologists, they should not become too reliant on software and must treat patients based on their own expertise.

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Are Cardiologists Becoming Too Dependent on EHRs?
Electronic Health Records have created quite a stir in the medical field. Its introduction has made life easier
for the medical fraternity. Initially, though, it was not widely accepted and physicians were a bit unsure of
taking this new technology on board. But as time passed its acceptance increased and more and more
physicians made their practices enabled with EHR. There are a lot of benefits of having an EHR in the practice
as it not only captures all the medical information of the patient but also the other data.
Moreover, it is easy to share this data across labs, hospitals, cities, states, and even countries. So if a patient is
moved elsewhere the medical, as well as all other data pertaining to the patient, can be transferred with
ease. These EHRs are programmed to assist physicians in their area of specialty. Similarly, cardiologists have
EHRs which cater to their specialty. The last few years have been difficult on cardiologists as there have been
Medicare reimbursement cuts due to some key diagnostic services like echocardiograms.
Add to that the impending implementation of ICD-10 which will restructure the coding, and increasing costs
have made private practice a difficult option for cardiologists. In addition to this, the administrative duties
render lives more difficult for cardiologists. The documentation and billing requirement for Cardiology is quite
demanding and due to its complex nature cardiologists have to spend an average of 15+ hours a week on
administrative activities.

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Are Cardiologists Becoming Too Dependent on EHRs?
However, with the correct IT solution, these challenges can be mitigated. With the usage of EHRs,
cardiologists can manage their tasks better. It makes life simpler for them. They can keep a track of their
medical activities as well as administrative tasks with equal élan.
Cardiologists benefit from using EHRs
Cardiologists can benefit a lot from using EHRs:
 They can understand the past and present medical problems of the patient as it play a crucial role in
diagnosing cardiac issues. The EHR software provides a checklist of all possible medical difficulties of the
patient which includes CAD, CVA, and other heart conditions. It also throws light on related conditions like
liver and renal diseases.
 EHRs help in capturing the in-depth family medical history as this helps in the diagnosis of the patient.
 Cardiology-specific conditions like palpitation? Can be checked to evaluate the heart size of the patient.
 Cardiologists can also examine the heart’s beat, rate rhythm and so on which indicates if the auscultations
are normal or not.

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Are Cardiologists Becoming Too Dependent on EHRs?
The above-mentioned points are just a few mentioned to give an idea the role EHRs play. There are several
more aspects that are covered.
Dependency on EHRs
Cardiologists should make sure that they do not get too dependent on the software. Eventually, it is them
who will be treating the patient and not the software. It is a fact that EHRs are machines that help the
workflow; not impede it.
However, it is equally true that cardiologists are not too dependent on EHRs since they are aware of their
profession being extremely complex to rely on only EHRs. Their use of the software is judicious, such that it
assists them in carrying out their duties.