Neonatal hospital information systems: present and future.

The generalized implementation in France of hospital information systems (H IS) is often considered by the medical practitioners as a useless constrain t Nevertheless, they are now largely used by the administrative authorities for their economical evaluation of medical care. in neonatology HIS is app lied to the hospitalized sick neonates as well as to the healthy newborn in fants during their maternity hospital stay with their mother following birt h. This paper focuses on the practical aspects and difficulties of the curr ent French HIS in neonatology. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.