Systematic planning of patient records for cooperative care and multicenter research.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for systematically planning patient records for structured data entry that can be used in cooperative environments (e.g. cooperative care, multicenter trials) in a way that enables multipurpose use and shared data entry.


METHODS
Design research, formal logic.


RESULTS
The method suggests five steps: analyze the prevailing documentation infrastructure, provide terminology management system (TMS), provide documentation management system (DMS), plan the logical architecture, provide all necessary tools.


CONCLUSIONS
The era of eHealth enables cooperative care and collaborative documentation. This can only be efficient if a multiple use and shared entry of data is realized. The task of the medical informatics community is to plan these environments systematically especially in complex environments which are enabled by emerging technologies.
Knaup
Petra
P
University of Heidelberg, Department of Medical Informatics, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. petra.knaup@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Garde
Sebastian
S
Haux
Reinhold
R
D035843:Biomedical Research; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D004282:Documentation; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010934:Planning Techniques; D018511:Systems Integration