Development of the electronic health record in Japan

In Japan, the order entry system has been employed in almost all university hospitals and popularisation of this system has also started in medium-sized hospitals. However, there has been a tendency in general hospitals in Japan to consider the electronic chart system where there has been no order entry system. Moreover, in small-scale clinics, there is no benefit in using the order entry system. Young doctors in Japan are beginning to employ the electronic chart system directly for the first time, without experience with the order entry system. In this paper, the development of the hospital information system in Japan and that of the electronic health record system are described. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.