The Requirements of an Electronic Medical Record to Suit all Clinical Disciplines

The design of the electronic medical record is becoming increasingly sophisticated as techniques develop to improve the understanding of user requirements. Such techniques must develop as it becomes increasingly important to improve the use and uptake of such records. An outstanding question is whether the same electronic medical record can fulfil the requirements of users in different clinical disciplines. To evaluate such a requirement it is necessary to understand the different information management the needs of different clinical disciplines. Only once these differing needs are understood, will it become possible to consider whether a common record is feasible in terms of both data modelling and the user interface. This paper describes the move towards a better understanding of user requirements. It outlines the differences between the requirements of various disciplines and discusses the implications. It concentrates on the differences between the requirements for hospital specialists and family medicine as an example of the problems.