Reviewing the integration of patient data: how systems are evolving in practice to meet patient needs

The literature was systematically reviewed between 1995–2005 to identify articles mentioning patient records, computers and data integration or sharing.Of 3124 articles, 84 were included describing 56 distinct projects. Most of the projects were on a regional scale. Integration was most commonly accomplished by messaging with pre-defined templates and middleware solutions. HL7 was the most widely used messaging standard. Direct database access and web services were the most common communication methods. The user interface for most systems was a Web browser. Regarding the type of medical data shared, 77% of projects integrated diagnosis and problems, 67% medical images and 65% lab results. More recently significantly more IS are extending to primary care and integrating referral letters.It is clear that Information Systems are evolving to meet people's needs by implementing regional networks, allowing patient access and integration of ever more items of patient data. Many distinct technological solutions coexist to integrate patient data, using differing standards and data architectures which may difficult further interoperability.This review appraises studies examining the different approaches to integrating patient data from heterogeneous IS. Special attention is given to the type of integration engine and the type of integrated data. Articles published in the English literature between 1995 and 2005 with abstracts available were reviewed. We aimed to specifically review the integration of patient data, and how systems are evolving in practice to meet patient, professional and organisational needs.A patient record is a set of documents containing clinical and administrative information regarding one particular patient, supporting communication and decision making in daily practice, and having different users and purposes [1]. Clinical care increasingly requires healthcare professionals to access patient record information that may be distributed across multiple sit