Vol. 21 • No.2 • 2009 MATERIA SOCIO MEDICA 103 PAPERS SUMMARY The main purpose of this work is to develop an Electronic Health Record (EHR), for the registration of clinical data, combined spatial Databases and GIS techniques. The main idea behind this work is the development of a real time efcient EHR environment in which clinical data could be analyzed and combined directly providing sections like statistical analy- sis, graphical presentation and GIS representation introducing disease monitoring. These monitoring results could be used as pilot directions for the spatial epidemiological analysis taking advantage geographical information for understanding the dynamics of health. Moreover the role of spatial information in the health sector in relation to the benefts of the GIS systems is illustrated combined with the spatial assumptions intro- ducing a real-time health monitoring tools and geographic information systems. The EHR includes demographic data of the patients, followed by clinical data of the current and previous hospital admissions (like blood test data, medical actions, biological examinations, etc). The data can easily be extracted from the database for the implementation of statisti- cal analysis with the use of the appropriate software. Demonstration of the system based on a short patient dataset was performed showing the benefts of the HER. Keywords: Electronic Health Record Model 1. INTRODUCTION Hospitals have a long road ahead to adoption of elec- tronic health records. Te EHR functions in which the greatest number of hospitals reported signifcant prog- ress are: Order entry, Results management, Electronic health information/data capture, Administrative pro- cesses. By comparison, relatively few hospitals reported signifcant progress in clinical decision support health outcomes reporting (13%), and patient access (2%). Larger hospitals were further along in EHR adoption than were mid-sized or small hospitals and non ru- ral hospitals were slightly further along than were rural hospitals. For these reason, it is crucial to develop an ef- fcient, real-time EHR environment for monitoring and analyzing epidemiological changes, introducing health- care policies. Electronic health record systems hold the promise to address the two most crucial challenges to the health- care system: controlling costs and improving quality. An electronic health record is a digital collection of a pa- tient’s medical history and could include items like diag- nosed medical conditions, prescribed medications, vital signs, immunizations, lab results, and personnel charac- teristics like age and weight. Te promises of EHRs are many: fewer adverse drug events, lower morbidity and mortality rates, seamless continuity of care, greater ef- ciencies, and lower costs. Electronic health records sys- tems can also provide additional functionality, such as interactive alerts to clinicians, interactive fow sheets, and tailored order sets, all of which can not be done be done with paper-based systems. Moreover geography plays a major role in under- standing the dynamics of health, and the causes and spread of disease. Te classic public health triad com- posed of man, agent/vehicle and environment empha- sizes the importance of geographic location (environ- ment or space where we live) in health and disease. In- teractions within this triad can also change with time. Besides policy development, and provision and manage- ment of health services, public health practitioners have other important and related tasks including respond- ing to health alerts and concerns, intersectional engage- ment, and community development initiatives. In all these tasks, they should try to incorporate searching and using best evidence in their everyday decision-making processes in order to minimize investment of eforts and funds in areas where there is solid evidence of no efect, or evidence of harm, or of poor cost-efectiveness. Evi- dence-based approaches can also highlight areas where the evidence may be less than reliable, requiring further An Electronic Health Record Model for the Spatial Epidemiological Analysis of Clinical Data Stelios Zimeras 1 , Marianna Diomidous 2 , Dimitris Zikos 2 , John Mantas 2 University of the Aegean, Department of Statistics and Actuarial-Financial Mathematics, Samos, Greece 1 University of Athens, Department of Public Health, Athens, Greece 2