The NFL Has Converted to an EHR System. What About You?

If you’re a football fan, it seems like every week another star player has been injured from head trauma – specifically concussions. The NFL even came out with a huge PR blitz on how they’re changing rules and helmets to try to address this ever-growing problem in this violent sport.

If you’re a football fan, it seems like every week another star player has been injured from head trauma – specifically concussions. The NFL even came out with a huge PR blitz on how they’re changing rules and helmets to try to address this ever-growing problem in this violent sport.

Now, the NFL is taking this concern one step further. They recently announced the implementation of a league-wide electronic health record (EHR) system. The system will allow NFL physicians to have cloud-based access to a wealth of medical data, including X-rays, blood tests, medications and even video clips depicting injuries sustained during the game. This new communicative data will help doctors spot trends in common problems resulting from the high-contact sport.

While there still being many questions on the long-run effect of concussions, the NFL hopes EHRs can help prevent some of these potential life-changing injuries in their players. By using a unified EHR system across the entire league, the NFL is eliminating individual team records, which were both electronic and paper-based. Records will follow players from team to team, and can be accessed anywhere in the country by a treating physician, whether or not they are a member of the league’s medical staff. This new information will provide the opportunity to identify patterns in the type of injuries that occur on the playing field and let researchers develop strategies to increase safety, create rehabilitation plans and plan workout regimens.