[How to put real medical records into computer? Data collection per notion]

Hospitals worldwide are faced with the enormous problem of storage and easy access to large volumes of information, especially that contained in medical records forms. The utilisation of the computer has raised great hopes in this field as well as certain fears. In all the attempts to automate the medical record, one is faced with the difficult problem of its introduction into the computer. After reviewing the techniques of the medical questionnaire and the transcription record with a meta-language, we then examine the reasons we have abandoned these two techniques. Data collection per notion is the result of practice and critical examination of one and the other method, for years ago. Data collection per notion is characterized by a "bursting" of the record as soon as it is collected. Data collection per notion only is a preparation stage for the next step: on-line data collection. The introduction of medical records into computer is not an end in itself; rather it is only the first step towards the more efficient utilisation of the information contained there in.