[Implementation of electronic health records at a tertiary care eye hospital]

Although electronic health records (EHR) were introduced into ophthalmology practices many years ago, paper-based medical records are still common in most tertiary care eye hospitals.

We report on the implementation of an EHR system at the university eye hospital in Münster in the time period between January and December 2013.

Advantages of an EHR system in the setting of a university eye hospital include ubiquitous access to patient data, structurability as well as scientific interpretability. Data safety, personnel and financial investment and integration into existing hospital software systems represent the main challenges.

The EHR system will replace paper-based records in the future. In view of the high need for visualization and recording of medical findings, EHR software solutions seem promising particularly in ophthalmology.