Abstract
The introduction of computer-based patient records (CPRs) that fully replace paper
records proves especially difficult in specialized care, despite the potential advantages
of CPRs for patient care and research. Improved data legibility, availability, sharing
of records, and decision support may directly benefit patient care. Barriers to the
introduction of CPR applications at institutions may be caused by lack of infrastructure,
or by financial or organizational issues. To have clinicians interactively enter data
at the point of care is still a big challenge. This paper presents an overview of
ORCA (Open Record of CAre): a generic CPR, designed for integration with existing
systems, presentation of multi-media patient data, and the collection of structured
data, directly by clinicians. ORCA can easily be tailored to the needs of a variety
of medical specialists without the need for changes to its data model, functionality,
or interface. The paper describes the essence of the architecture of ORCA and the
user benefits with emphasis on the support of structured data entry.
Keywords
Medical Records - Knowledge Representation - User Interface - Structured Data Entry
- System Integration
