International journal of medical informatics
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This paper reviews the research literature on electronic health record (EHR) systems. The aim is to find out (1) how electronic health records are defined, (2) how the structure of these records is described, (3) in what contexts EHRs are used, (4) who has access to EHRs, (5) which data components of the EHRs are used and studied, (6) what is the purpose of research in this field, (7) what methods of data collection have been used in the studies reviewed and (8) what are the results of these studies. ⋯ Studies focusing on the content of EHRs are needed, especially studies of nursing documentation or patient self-documentation. One future research area is to compare the documentation of different health care professionals with the core information about EHRs which has been determined in national health projects. The challenge for ongoing national health record projects around the world is to take into account all the different types of EHRs and the needs and requirements of different health care professionals and consumers in the development of EHRs. A further challenge is the use of international terminologies in order to achieve semantic interoperability.