[A Research on the origin and development of standardization of Chinese medical case records]

The origin of Chinese medical case history is rather early. Chunyu Yi's medical cases (zhen ji) of the Western Han Dynasty were the earliest actual extant medical case with the practical contents. In the Ming Dynasty, Han Mao put forward firstly the principles of "six aspects must be recorded" for writing the pulse record, as the beginning of the standardization of medical case record. Later, Wu Kun, Yu Yan, Li Yanzhen, He Lianchen et al. supplemented, adjusted and changed the format of medical case record. After 1949, the format of medical case record was revised several times to form the national standard. In fact, the clinical medical case record is different from the case history. The modern medical case record could not reflect fully the thinking process of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the essence of the treatment based on syndrome differentiation. Exploring the origin and development of the standardization of medical case record will benefit for the improvement of modern format of medical case record.