The clinician-information interface

Technical advances now enable rapid data collection into sophisticated information systems, and the vision of the electronic patient record may soon be a reality. However, despite advances in the human-computer interface, little attention has been given to the structure of the clinical data to be collected in the electronic record. The 'clinician-information interface' embraces the cognitive, analytical, and decision processes that the clinician will need to undergo to capture clinical data in a structured, meaningful, and analyzable form. This paper discusses some of the issues which need to be addressed if the emerging opportunities for a detailed capture of clinical data are to be maximized.