Aspects of anatomical and chronological sequence diagrams in software-supported emergency care patient report forms

Abstract

Across Europe emergency physicians are still using paper-based emergency report forms to document medical procedure at accident scenes. The forms are quite similar, but they differ in certain parameters or attributes. There are ongoing endeavours to combine the paper-based protocols and then transfer this new protocol standard into a software-based Emergency Patient Care Report Form (EPCRF). However during the transformation from a paper-based to an electronic solution, many problems occur. To keep the users' acceptance of the emergency medical services personnel, it is crucial that electronic EPCRF supports the central process efficiently. Therefore key elements within the emergency report form are the anatomical diagrams and the chronological sequence diagrams. These diagrams allow the emergency physician to track and record patient's parameters in a very fast and understandable and user friendly way. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.