An electronic medical record (EMR) is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.

An electronic health record (EHR) is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.

So, EHRs are interoperable and EMRs are not. Today, many people use the terms interchangeably. However, when speaking of exchanging health information electronically with other providers outside your practice, the correct term is "EHR."

Information provided was obtained from the Health Information Security and Privacy Toolkit.