Many computerized medical records have been produced. Some are too operational and a little clinical, others are much oriented towards decision-making, but a little efficient in clinical data management, others are still too “to measure” for a specific kind of physician (usually, the General Practitioner).
All of them have two common characteristics: they are not linked to the operational context and they are built not on the patient, but on the operator.
It is well known that one of the problems concerning a patient’s clinical data management is represented by the fact that each center, with which he/she is to be in contact, opens its own medical record. Practically, the medical record is department-centered more than patient-centered.
On the contrary, NetCare uses the concept of patient medical record: an only medical record, created on the first time the patient contacts a specialized department and never closed. The various medical records we are used to see (hospitalization, etc.) are then integrated within it.
Disease management “patient-centered” Architecture
So, NetCare represents a qualitative leap in comparison with the existing medical records, because, more than a simple medical record, it is a complex (but easy to use) “disease management” tool, for the patient-centered management:
- department computerization (medical record and operational work flow);
- information standardization and sharing;
- clinical data aggregation for research;
- patient-centered architecture.
NetCare satisfies all these aims. It is, in fact, centered on clinical data management and includes a specialized computerized medical record, with some particular characteristics:
- it is easy and fast to use;
- it allows two clinical data management levels, the one freely managed by the operator, the other standardized;
- it allows a high workflow flexibility in order to adapt the tool to the department procedures.
Operatively, NetCare is like a series of index sheets, with the possibility to manage these virtual files as single paper sheets on which it is possible to write notes, to customize observations and data records without caring of uniformity as the system provides to standardize information and reports, up to complex synthesis output (which are required) like, for example, Hospital Discharge File or Discharge Letter for the General Practitioner.
Besides, the system allows to print each section of the medical record and is realized according to the law in force, protecting clinical data legal property.
