The medical record in general practice. Where art and science meet.

The human relationship between healer and patient constitutes the basis of medical practice. It has been customary for health professionals to make a written record of their observations on the interaction. The efforts to produce better records consist of structuring them more clearly and extracting certain items of information in order to be able to index them like books in a library. The electronic computer can solve some of these problems but general practitioners have to be aware of the limitations of the computer.