Abstract

STUSSER BELTRANENA, Rodolfo J.  and  RODRIGUEZ DIAZ, Alfredo. The informatization in primary health care. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2006, vol.22, n.4. ISSN 0864-2125.

The informatization in primary health care is perceived as problem that is solved by creating computer networks between the family physicians' offices and the polyclinics. This article gives a panoramic view of the state in which the art of informatization of primary health care and comprehensive general medicine is in the world and in Cuba. To this end, the prehistoric origin of this care level and of the specialty is synthezised, as well as the contemporary development of informatics and its medical applications. Primary care and its informatics is also defined, and the information systems, the computer applications and their challenges are summarized. It is offered a practical view of the electronic medical history: the heart of the informatics of primary health care and comprehensive general medicine. It is concluded that Cuba has worked for 20 years in the computerization of the follow-up and statitics for the service management at this care level, and that it should also work with the approach focused on the patient to contribute to create a classification that integrates health and disease, computerizing the information and the clinical decision making at the physician's office, or at the patient's house, specially in the remote rural areas in order to make the quality of the rural primary care equal to that of the urban primary care.

Keywords : Primary care; general medicine; informatics; telemedicine; electronic health; information system; health services; electronic medical history..