[Electronic medical history: utopia or reality?].

With the advent of computers in medicine, the patient's chart has a more varied function. The basic use has been as the physician's instrument to provide information about diseases and their evolution. In order to link the physician with the capacity of a computer, a common language was elaborated based on the patient's chart. Computerized charting now makes possible not only improved communication and administration but also serves as a statistical databank. Important applications of a medical databank are statistical analysis of the chart, quality control of medical practice and facilitation of scientific studies. The patient's chart becomes a powerful multifunctional instrument in the clinic, the practice, and in research.