Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 29;8(5):e16980.
doi: 10.2196/16980.

Categorization of Third-Party Apps in Electronic Health Record App Marketplaces: Systematic Search and Analysis

Jordon Ritchie #  1 , Brandon Welch #  1
Affiliations

Categorization of Third-Party Apps in Electronic Health Record App Marketplaces: Systematic Search and Analysis

Jordon Ritchie et al. JMIR Med Inform. .

Abstract

Background: Third-party electronic health record (EHR) apps allow health care organizations to extend the capabilities and features of their EHR system. Given the widespread utilization of EHRs and the emergence of third-party apps in EHR marketplaces, it has become necessary to conduct a systematic review and analysis of apps in EHR app marketplaces.

Objective: The goal of this review is to organize, categorize, and characterize the availability of third-party apps in EHR marketplaces.

Methods: Two informaticists (authors JR and BW) used grounded theory principles to review and categorize EHR apps listed in top EHR vendors' public-facing marketplaces.

Results: We categorized a total of 471 EHR apps into a taxonomy consisting of 3 primary categories, 15 secondary categories, and 55 tertiary categories. The three primary categories were administrative (n=203, 43.1%), provider support (n=159, 33.8%), and patient care (n=109, 23.1%). Within administrative apps, we split the apps into four secondary categories: front office (n=77, 37.9%), financial (n=53, 26.1%), office administration (n=49, 24.1%), and office device integration (n=17, 8.4%). Within the provider support primary classification, we split the apps into eight secondary categories: documentation (n=34, 21.3%), records management (n=27, 17.0%), care coordination (n=23, 14.4%), population health (n=18, 11.3%), EHR efficiency (n=16, 10.1%), ordering and prescribing (n=15, 9.4%), medical device integration (n=13, 8.2%), and specialty EHR (n=12, 7.5%). Within the patient care primary classification, we split the apps into three secondary categories: patient engagement (n=50, 45.9%), clinical decision support (n=40, 36.7%), and remote care (n=18, 16.5%). Total app counts varied substantially across EHR vendors. Overall, the distribution of apps across primary categories were relatively similar, with a few exceptions.

Conclusions: We characterized and organized a diverse and rich set of third-party EHR apps. This work provides an important reference for developers, researchers, and EHR customers to more easily search, review, and compare apps in EHR app marketplaces.

Keywords: app marketplace; apps; electronic health records; interoperability; medical informatics; software.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Romano MJ, Stafford RS. Electronic health records and clinical decision support systems: impact on national ambulatory care quality. Arch Intern Med. 2011 May 23;171(10):897–903. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2010.527. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/21263077 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adler-Milstein J, Jha AK. HITECH Act Drove Large Gains In Hospital Electronic Health Record Adoption. Health Aff (Millwood) 2017 Aug 01;36(8):1416–1422. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1651. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Samal Lipika, Linder Jeffrey A, Lipsitz Stuart R, Hicks Leroi S. Electronic health records, clinical decision support, and blood pressure control. Am J Manag Care. 2011 Sep;17(9):626–32. https://www.ajmc.com/pubMed.php?pii=51727 - PubMed
    1. Burke HB, Sessums LL, Hoang A, Becher DA, Fontelo P, Liu F, Stephens M, Pangaro LN, O'Malley PG, Baxi NS, Bunt CW, Capaldi VF, Chen JM, Cooper BA, Djuric DA, Hodge JA, Kane S, Magee C, Makary ZR, Mallory RM, Miller T, Saperstein A, Servey J, Gimbel RW. Electronic health records improve clinical note quality. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2015 Jan;22(1):199–205. doi: 10.1136/amiajnl-2014-002726. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/25342178 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kalorama Information. [2019-03-13]. EMR Market 2017: Electronic Medical Records in an Era of Disruption https://kaloramainformation.com/product/emr-market-2017-electronic-medic...

LinkOut - more resources