Using an iconic language to improve access to electronic medical records in general medicine

Physicians have difficulties to access and analyse information in a medical record. In a previous work on drug databanks, we have shown that with an iconic language as VCM, an icon-based presentation can help physicians to access medical information. Our objective, herein, is to study whether VCM can be used in an electronic medical record for facilitating physician access in general practice. We identify the data and the functionalities of an electronic medical record that could benefit from VCM icons representing clinical findings, patient history, etc. We also present a preliminary evaluation of this new icon-focused interface. We conclude by discussing the results like the assessment of the user's satisfaction and pointing out the importance of coding data.