Data integration of electronic medical record under administrative decentralization of medical insurance and healthcare in China: a case study

In most regions of China, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in hospitals are developed in an uncoordinated manner. Medical Insurance and Healthcare Administration are localised and organizations gather data from a functional management viewpoint without consideration of wider information sharing. Discontinuity of data resources is serious. Despite the government’s repeated emphasis on EMR data integration, little progress has been made, causing inconvenience to patients, but also significantly hindering data mining.