Electronic Health Records and Communication for Better Heath Care: Proceedings of EuroRec '01

The annual EuroRec Working Conference has become the traditional gathering of all the partners involved on the scene of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). While the existence of relevant technical specifications is acknowledged as of utmost importance, ahead or beyond the technical concern lie key issues that are of cultural, economic, ethical, and political nature: each one of these specific lines must be paid great attention to. "Which incentives, which business model, which solutions are available for communicating EHRs in hospital and ambulatory care?" These key questions have been the thread for a series of specific workshops that have been taken place over the two conference days, each one addressing a specific topic: does the use of EHRs reveal a cultural gap?; an ethical concern; an economic concern; a political concern and a technical concern.