In response to a decision by the Japanese government that the reimbursement of nursing fees should reflect each patient's requirement of the given nursing service, the quality and the effectiveness of nursing records must be greatly improved to ensure reliable records of the services.
Today's highly advanced medicine is supported by various medical professions, and healthcare services are provided not only at clinics and hospitals, but also in local communities and homes. To maintain close cooperation among them, these diverse care providers must have a means to share all information necessary to give the very best service using the best of today's advanced technologies. And the concept of the critical path defines the standardized care plans to be carried out by them.
With expanding needs for nursing services provided at home which consume a lot of staff resources, easily understood nursing information including visual information should be supplied to patients and their families to maintain the quality and the effectiveness of the service.
In nursing information, the color of visual data is one of the most important factors in all contexts mentioned above, and nursing professionals should have opportunities to actively join in the discussion on clinical applications of digital imaging, especially accurate reproduction of color.