I mean from every check-in to every release/death, all patient data is collected, tracked. All tests automatically end up in the patient file and every device a patient is hooked up to is part of the same "system". Spend time on an EKG? Every heart beat becomes part of this package. Every shot, every weigh-in, every blood pressure test. This should also tie in to inventory systems etc.
Got the sniffles? The system shows you get them every year at this time, and that it's atypical of any other tracked infectious outbreak, but correlates to three cyclical natural events including a yearly mold growth that it turns out you're allergic to.
End up incapacitates in the ER? System automatically notes your allergies and past medical history, allowing the ER folks to give you one pain medicine instead of the other one that will kill you. While you're there, all the respirators, etc. all get logged. Take 5 units of blood from 3 donors? All their histories are tracked and fed into your treatment in-case some blood-born illness they suffer from but passed screening shows up in your case.
Blood test shows an abnormality? You get automatic trendlines showing either a progression of this abnormal result (blood sugar continues to get lower) or a weird spike, this way your doctor isn't just working off of one data point like usual.
Every x-ray, cat scan etc. all get stored for later reference. The first cat scan your oncologist takes might not be the first cat scan she can refer to if you have one in your file?
Right now, at least in the U.S., and with different insurances every year (meaning my doctor might change every year), I have to really go out of my way just to make sure my shot records follow me. Within one provider they do an okay job of tracking my medical history and getting x-rays from the x-ray machine to the wall mounted display in the evaluation room, but the moment I need to go to a hospital I'm pretty much filling out my history again by hand and from memory.
Vertically integrated means dumping your medical history into Watson to see if some emergent patterns point to some underlying chronic illness you aren't even aware of and don't have notable symptoms yet.
