EDS Corp., based in Plano, Texas, has chosen its offices in Warwick as the site for its National Center of Excellence for the development and enhancement of systems to support electronic health records across the country.

The center will create about 25 jobs and EDS expects to host a job fair before the end of next month to fill the openings.

Electronic health records (EHRs) will allow hospitals, doctors, pharmacists and other authorized health-care providers access to a patient’s medical history. Electronic records have been shown to increase patient safety, reduce medical redundancies and substantially cut health-care costs.

The center in Rhode Island will focus on developing and streamlining the delivery of EHRs throughout the United States. EDS already has been selected for two major electronic health record contracts in the United States, both of which are in negotiation.

EDS also operates several systems in Europe, Canada and Asia Pacific.

“Electronic health records offer an enormous potential for increasing patient safety while reducing health-care costs,” said Jim Duffey, general manager, EDS U.S. public sector.

“We chose Rhode Island for our national center for several reasons, including Governor Carcieri’s outspoken support for electronic health care, access to high-quality educational institutions, Rhode Island’s national reputation for Medicaid innovation and our successful long-term relationship with the state.”

“We will be looking for IT professionals with experience in the health industry and health-care professionals with experience in transferring health-related data in a clinical setting,” said Tom O’Brien, managing director of the Rhode Island facility.

EDS has been Rhode Island’s Medicaid fiscal agent partner for more than 15 years.