Interest in the application of the electronic computer to medical records appears to be increasing rapidly. In the medical community there is growing recognition of the potential advantages of computerized medical records, and research efforts in this area are gaining more attention, support, and stature.
In a recent report, the Life Sciences Panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee devotes considerable attention to the health record, and notes1:
The application of computer technology to the recording, storage, and analysis of data collected in the course of observing and treating large numbers of ill people promises to advance our understanding of the cause, course, and control of disease. The need for a general-purpose health information technology stems in large part from increasingly rapid changes in the pattern of illness in the United States and from equally significant changes in the way medicine is practiced.... The Panel reported that the medical