Electronic Records for General Practice - Where we Are, Where we should Head to Improve Them

In this paper we present the findings of a country-wide survey that was aimed at getting a comprehensive picture of the current level of adoption and appropriation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) by General Practitioners (GPs). In this survey, which collected the responses from 800 Italian GPs coming from all over the country and exhibiting different experience and ICT skills, we investigated the level of current satisfaction of users with respect to two classes of functional and non-functional features of current EMRs, namely “core” and “advanced” ones. We also tried to detect which of these features are valued most highly by the current EMR users in order to inform prospective users, EMR vendors and policy makers in the eHealth domain. We also focused on the impact that digitization has had so far on General Practice, as it is perceived from the perspective of the front-line users (i.e., doctors). Finally we also addressed how the use of ICT could change in the near future as a tool to facilitate doctor patient communication and collaboration.