Virtual electronic patient records for shared care.

Systems that primarily serve health-care organizations are changing into systems that support patient care. The core of this change is shaped by systems for computer-based patient records (CPRs), which are part of local or regional networks, giving access to data in different information systems. In principle, it should not matter where the patient data are located as long as data can be transferred to the physical location where patients and clinicians meet. Networking and electronic communication enable to realize an environment that makes all systems where patient data reside, acting as one integrated, virtual CPR-system from the user's perspective. The patient record itself needs not to be physically located at one place, but may be virtual. A development in this direction is the European 14C project, which aims at integrating patient record data, images, and biosignals from whatever system they are stored and on whatever computer they are processed in the network.