The History of the Patient Record and the Paper Record

Abstract

This chapter introduces the long history of the patient record, from ancient times until now. From the Egyptians in 1600 BC to the Greeks with Hippocrates, the father of medicine, to the Arabs and then to the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and the development of natural sciences during the eighteenth century. From the first attempts to describe and classify nature that formed the first patient record, to the modern paper based records with their distinct headlines and sections describing the findings and symptoms, treatment of the patient and finally the outcome; followed by the organisation of the paper records to make them easy to follow. This chapter will also discuss the Greek-Latin terminology in the patient records.