BackgroundIn accordance with the People’s Republic of China’s (China) National Health Reform Plan of 2009, two of the nation’s leading hospitals, located in Beijing, have implemented electronic medical record (EMR) systems from different vendors.To inform future EMR adoption and policy in China, as well as informatics research in the US, this study compared the United State’s Hospital Meaningful Use (MU) Objectives (phase 1) objectives to the EMR functionality of two early hospital EMR adopters in China.MethodsAt both hospitals, the researchers observed a physician using the EMR and noted MU functionality that was seen and functionality that was not seen yet was available in the EMR. The information technology department was asked about the availability of functionality neither observed nor known to the physician.Results and conclusionsApproximately half the MU objectives were available in each EMR. Some differences between the EMRs in the study and MU objectives were attributed to operational differences between the health systems and the cultures in the two countries.

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Objective To analyze and compare the usefulness of hypertension management APPs released in the Chinese market; to understand the general situations, characteristics, problems, and trends in hypertension management mHealth APPs; and to identify the gaps between mainland China products and non-mainland China products with the aim to provide recommendations for developers in industry and assist hypertensive patients in selecting suitable APPs. Methods The hypertension management APPs available by October 2016 in China were analyzed from the perspective of data items and function usefulness. Sample sets were determined through PRISMA. An evaluation item set was developed based on the usability framework of TURF and the Chinese Guideline for the Management of Hypertension and used to quantitatively analyze the functionalities and data items collected from the sample APPs from the perspective of designers, users, and activity models. Results Among the 73 Chinese-supported APPs, none of the hypertension management APPs could fully cover the usefulness item set (mean = 37.4%). Regarding the use of mobile terminal hardware, only cameras and positioning sensors are commonly used in information collection. Regarding the data items and services provided, the most commonly collected data are “demographic information” (88% versus 100%) and “vital signs” (76% versus 100%), but APPs developed in mainland China and non-mainland China provided significantly different services and profit-making patterns. Regarding data security and privacy protection, the APPs from mainland China provided far lower usefulness (31% versus 56%). Conclusions mHealth APPs can promptly and efficiently acquire sign-related data by improving the professionality and scientificity of data about healthy living habits. APPs also improve the preventive usefulness of the collected data and bring about new opportunities for the management and control of hypertension. Other important research trends include privacy protection and data security.

This study aims to evaluate the comorbidity burden and patterns among adult patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Northeast China using hospital discharge data derived from the electronic medical record database between 2002 and 2013. 12.8% of 4,400,892 inpatients aged ≥18 had a diagnosis of T2DM. Sex differences in prevalence varied among those aged <50, 50–59, and ≥60. Twenty-seven diseases were determined as major comorbidities of T2DM. Essential hypertension was the most common comorbidity of T2DM (absolute cooccurrence risk, 58.4%), while T2DM was also the most popular comorbidity of essential hypertension. Peripheral and visceral atherosclerosis showed the strongest association (relative cooccurrence risk, RCoR 4.206). For five leading comorbidities among patients aged ≥40, male patients had a stronger association with disorders of lipid metabolism than female patients (RCoR 2.779 versus 2.099), and female patients had a stronger association with chronic renal failure than male patients (RCoR 2.461 versus 2.155). Leading comorbidities, except chronic renal failure, had declining associations with T2DM with increased age. Collectively, hospital discharge data can be used to estimate disease prevalence and identify comorbidities. The findings provided comprehensive information on comorbidity patterns, helping policy makers and programs in public health domains to estimate and evaluate the epidemic of chronic diseases.