During the past few years, the extensible Markup Language (XML) has experienced a growing use for accessing, representing and exchanging information, especially in the health care environment. This paper discusses the potentials of the use of XML for the electronic patient record (EPR) in two ways: first, as a format for the exchange of structured messages, and second, as a comprehensible way of representing patient documents. These statements rely on a three years experiment conducted at the Geneva University Hospital as part of its document-centred EPR.