Electronic Health Records in Sweden: From Administrative Management to Clinical Decision Support

Computer support for health care started in Sweden in the mid-1960s, with a series of pilot tests using clinical records at the Karolinska Hospital. This had very little impact in health care due to its limited volume and scope. In addition, the first automation of chemistry laboratories that created many benefits in the form of increased efficiency from the early 1970s, rapid results delivery and the possibilities of quality control also occurred in the mid-1960s. The 1970s and first part of the 1980s saw the independent development of several patient administration systems, based on central mainframes in the counties, as well as a large number of dumb terminals in the hospitals and later also in the outpatient clinics. From the early 1990s, we saw an explosion of primary care electronic health records with twenty-seven different products in 1995.