Most current electronic medical record (EMR) systems have been designed for general medical providers. These systems often work poorly for certain subspecialty providers such as ophthalmologists. By taking into account the differences between ophthalmology practices and other medical specialists a more useful EMR system can be designed for the ophthalmology clinic.

We have initiated a project to design and implement an EMR system for the Stanford ophthalmology clinics. This system will be web-based to allow easy sharing of information between the various clinics and to allow remote access. Utilizing the Internet will also provide seamless integration of the various digital diagnostic tools commonly used in the clinics. We hope to achieve a system, which works equally well for general ophthalmologists and subspecialty providers. This lecture will describe the design parameters of the EMR and discuss the current status of this project.