From a paper-based transmission of discharge summaries to electronic communication in health care regions.

Objectives: In Austria, the general practitioner (GP) is the first point of contact for persons with health problems. Depending on the severity of the person's medical condition, a GP may refer her or him to a secondary care hospital consultant, who reports findings back to the GP in form of a paper-based discharge letter. Researchers report that paper-based communication of medical documents between different health care providers is insufficient in quality, error prone and too slow in many cases.

Approaches towards a regional, shared electronic patient record for health care facilities of different health care organizations--IT-strategy and first results.

Today, information processing in healthcare facilities is usually primarily directed towards the information needs of the respective institution. This stands in apparent contradiction to the fact that patients may not be solely treated in one general practice or hospital. More information processing towards patient-centered, shared care would better support high quality as well as efficient health care.

Evaluation of user acceptance of information systems in health care--the value of questionnaires.

The use of modern information technology (IT) offers tremendous opportunities such as reducing clinical errors and supporting health care professionals in providing care. Evaluation of user satisfaction is often seen as a surrogate for the success of an information systems. We will present the evaluation of a report writing system at the Innsbruck University Medical Center based on a standardized, validated psychometric questionnaire.