Electronic Ecomap as an Instrument to Improve Physician–Family Interaction in Preventive Medicine

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the main causes of mortality in low-income countries are communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional conditions. The issue arises because early detection requires the implementation of a primary healthcare system. As part of the family record, we have the Ecomap, an instrument for recording family relationships with their environment in their day-to-day activities graphically, whether this comprises people or institutions such as the church and health centers. In Peru, the use of Ecomap has traditionally been in a hard-copy format, which has problems updating because it is handwritten. Given this limitation, a computer application “electronic Ecomap” (e-Ecomap) has been developed, a resource with which healthcare personnel can interact in a user-friendly manner. In an aggregate mode, it will be possible to visualize the families of a community as a whole, highlighting the behavior of the institutions surrounding them. In this manner, it will be possible to prevent the effects of these risks in a generation of psychosocial problems that can later lead to psychosomatic illnesses. Finally, the e-Ecomap will be able to infer the connections of the family with its environment in conjunction with the data registered in the family record.