Medical information systems: assessing impact in the areas of hypertension, obesity and renal disease.

This study described the influence of a computerized medical record summary system in three disease areas (hypertension, obesity and renal disease) observed in the course of a controlled, randomized and prospective study of 479 Northwestern University Clinic patients. Experimental patients, who had available automated record summaries, and control patients, who had available only the manual record, were compared on several medical tests and procedures whose yearly occurrence was considered good medical practice for this patient population, and were compared as well as several measures of outcome of medical care. Evidence suggesting better care and outcome of care among patients with computerized record summaries available is presented.