Abstract
The application of Information and Communication Technologies to clinical activity gives rise to electronic health and clinical records. In this way clinical information comes to take part in a health information system and is a source of data for the management of knowledge, epidemiology and health care planning. The primary consequence of the electronic health and clinical record is the improvement in continuity and quality of health care.
This essay reviews the requirements for the electronic health and clinical record (identification of persons, integration of information and compliance with the norms of security and confidentiality). It also summarises the consequences of using the electronic health and clinical record: the improvement in continuity and quality of health care as well as the greater availability of clinical information as a source of knowledge. Special mention is made of the opportunity to enhance the clinical management of medicinal products (prescription, dispensing and evaluation); this, too, benefits from the electronic prescription, provided that this is considered a clinical document closely connected to the electronic clinical record.
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