The networking standards evolution: toward a real electronic medical record. Interview by Carolyn Dunbar

While converging networking standards have created short- and long-term options for healthcare IS planners, one strong goal is a "life-long, longitudinal electronic medical record" that includes data of all types--text, wave forms, voice, images and other pictorial data. Jack Harrington of Hewlett-Packard says these complex efforts are shaped by major forces that now speed progress toward multilateral acceptance of a uniform standard.