Information Technology in the Development of Electronic Health Records in Taiwan

The use of electronic medical record is the developmental tendency in Hospital Information Systems (HIS). It can be expanded to form Electronic Health Records (EHR). Its value consists of its ability to integrate the health information of patients from different sources. The Taiwan Electronic Medical Record Template (TMT) was developed to provide a basic structure of reference for establishing electronic medical records in the unique medical environment in Taiwan. This paper will review past developments in electronic medical record between 2004 and 2009 in Taiwan and scrutinize the current application and development of international electronic medical record exchange standards. Additionally, this study will address the TMT construction process and its information architecture as well as its information safety design and describe the TMT information transfer mechanism and present some application samples. Finally, the researchers will present concrete suggestions conducive to the study of future medical information exchange standards.