Author(s)

A. McWilliams & I.C. Wright

Abstract

In UK, Primary Healthcare has led development of computer-based patient record systems. In England and Wales, an 'open market' approach has meant that practices wishing to procure a system have a wide choice (about 100 different systems). Some systems were marketed by companies established by GPs, with products reflecting their own style of medical practice. Others had their origins in hardware or pharmaceutical companies, resulting in differing emphases altogether. So far there have been no widely agreed measures of software "quality". Many GMPs find it difficult to decide what functionality they need from their system, and inter-system transfer of data also poses problems. It became evident that some method was needed to facilitate comparative testing of computer-

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