To practice medicine in the near future, health care providers in the USA need an
information infrastructure they do not yet have. We offer a contribution from social
science research to discussions of current medical records practices and how health
care activity systems may be transformed by the advent of electronic health records.
The goal of the paper is to set forth a framework that connects over-arching questions
concerning medical informatics systems development with the practical, cultural and
conceptual issues involved in transitions from handwritten and other free text documentation
to structured entry of medical records to build patient profiles. The research is
broadly framed by an interest in how reciprocal modifications of the design and use
of an electronic health record are negotiated in an iterative prototyping project.
It is conducted as part of a complex multi-disciplinary research and development effort
to create an electronic health record prototype for use in the integrated health care
delivery environment of the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program.
Keywords:
Electronic Health Records - Electronic Medical Records - Computer-based Patient Records
- Medical Vocabulary - Medical Practice - Diagnostic Codes