In May, 1999, SETMA enunciated 10 principles for design and electronic medical records system which would improve the quality and safety of medical care. They are:

1.  Pursue Electronic Patient Management rather than Electronic Patient Records.
2.  Bring to bear upon every patient encounter what is known rather than what a particular provider knows.
3.  Make it easier to do it right than not to do it at all.
4.  Continually challenge providers to improve their performance.
5.  Infuse new knowledge and decision-making tools throughout an organization instantly.
6.  Establish and promote continuity of care with patient education, information and plans of care.
7.  Enlist patients as partners and collaborators in their own health improvement.
8.  Evaluate the care of patients and populations of patients longitudinally.
9.  Audit provider performance based on the Consortium for Physician Performance Improvement Data Sets.    
10.  Create multiple disease-management tools which are integrated in an intuitive and interchangeable fashion giving patients the benefit of expert knowledge about specific conditions while they get the benefit of a global approach to their total health.