Summary
Objectives: In 1998, we reported a steady increase in the number of publications indexed in MedLine
with the MeSH term ‘Medical Records Systems, Computerized’. No signs indicating an
increasing interest of high-impact medical journals to publish on the computer-based
patient record could be determined. In this review we provide an update.
Methods: We retrieved and analyzed all English publications indexed before Feb 22 2002 in
PubMed with the MeSH term ‘Medical Records Systems, Computerized’.
Results: We retrieved a total of 5856 publications, of which 1824 (31%) appeared in a journal
with an impact factor in the year of publication. The total impact-score shows an
upward trend.
Conclusions: The results show that the earlier observed increase in number of publications did
not persist in the second half of the nineteen-nineties. Since the mid-nineties, there
has been a steady yearly production of publications indexed with the MeSH term, reflecting
a sustained interest in the domain. However, the volume of publications appearing
in journals with higher impact factors is increasing. Furthermore, high-impact journals,
such as the “British Medical Journal”, the “Lancet” and “Annals of Internal Medicine”
regularly publish on the subject, reflecting an interest well beyond the medical informatics
community.
Keywords
Medical Records Systems - Computerized - MedLine
