Telecommunication as a medicine for the general practioner

The Internet is suffering from a continuous explosion of users, yet Internet communication in the healthcare chain is still at a low level. Most institutions that should be working together keep their information in-house "for the patient's sake". This research studies the workflow that is concerned with the status of the patient in the healthcare chain. The functional integration of all healthcare chain components is an objective that might be utopia, but electronic prescriptions and electronic medical records combined with strong communication facilities create many possibilities to make a step in the right direction. Communication is a strong weapon for the strategic use of information systems. Although at this moment in time, most patient information is transmitted by paper or by telephone, the near future will show the introduction of the electronic life of the patient. The main result of the first phase of this study is that general practitioners should not be seduced with money and quality aspects to improve their information systems. What they need is a reduction of time pressure and a means to communicate with the environment.