Surgical Progress with the advanced electronic patient record. JASGBI 34 August 2011

David A Rew, Consultant Surgeon

"Time lends perspective to the view"
The electronic patient record (EPR) is not yet mature. Time and again, initiatives driven by information technology professionals have foundered in the rea world complexity of medical information and in the refusal of nature and biology to conform to simple and logical algorithms. The progress of computerisation of clinical and surgical data has thus been erratic Individual surgeons, clinical units, hospitals and health care systems have adopted local and piecemeal solutions to the purchase of hardware and software and to the automation of information flows. Much NHS IT development and investment has been driven by administrative and managerial requirements, rather than specifically to answer clinical questions.

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