ABSTRACT
To give an overview of the ICT-based service platforms and patient record systems, we have divided the chapter into three sections. First, we introduce some background information to understand why we need health informatics and technology in general, then we give a brief history of how this field has evolved during the last few decades, and finally we introduce the fundamental building blocks that are necessary to create these service platforms. Health care is a difficult field because of numerous reasons. It is more or less different in all of the countries in the world that means it is very hard to give a perfect and precise overview of everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in this sector. The next part gives an overview of different technologies that ICT-based health care service platforms and patient records comprise. They are introduced to the reader from simple to more complex systems. To implement and use complex systems, one has to have adopted the simple systems. It is not about giving the reader a chronological order but a development order. After getting to know the fundamental systems, electronic services of clinicians and consumers are introduced to the reader. Section 5.4 is about fundamentals and the building blocks that are needed to successfully build health service platforms and patient record systems. There are no shortcuts in our opinion. Of course, nowadays one can develop and adopt the principle structures and systems much faster, but they still need to be developed and adopted starting from the ground up.
