Integrating knowledge based functionality in commercial hospital information systems.

Successful integration of knowledge-based functions in the electronic patient record depends on direct and context-sensitive accessibility and availability to clinicians and must suit their workflow. In this paper we describe an exemplary integration of an existing standalone scoring system for acute abdominal pain into two different commercial hospital information systems using Java/Corba technolgy.

Teaching computer classes at the University Hospital of Münster--evaluation of long-term results.

With the increasing use of computers in the hospital, staff have to face working with a new medium and technology. Computer training is required to increase user acceptance. After a brief presentation of the current teaching concept, the effectiveness and long-term results of computer classes that have been offered at the University Hospital of Münster since August 1998 are evaluated.

Telepathology network: conceptual groundwork and evaluation.

Telepathology uses telecommunication technology to transmit microscopic images for diagnostic or teaching purposes. Basic requirements for a telepathology system are described. Usage scenarios for a telepathology network are presented including applications in intraoperative frozen section diagnosis, scientific collaboration and computer based training.

[Electronic documentation in medicine; flexible concepts versus isolated solutions].

Computer-based medical documentation so far proved advantageous especially through standardization of data entry and increased access speed. Additional benefits can be achieved through the implementation of integrated, cross-project documentation tools and their integration into the clinical work-flow, which allow data to be used for a wide variety of applications (e.g.

Workflow analysis and evidence-based medicine: towards integration of knowledge-based functions in hospital information systems.

The large extent and complexity of scientific evidence described in the concept of evidence-based medicine often overwhelms clinicians who want to apply best external evidence. Hospital Information Systems usually do not provide knowledge-based functions to support context-sensitive linking to external information sources. Knowledge-based components need specific data, which must be entered manually and should be well adapted to clinical environment to be accepted by clinicians.

Stepwise evaluation of information systems in an university hospital.

A prospective intervention study with historical control has been performed at Giessen University Hospital, Germany, to investigate the influence of electronic data processing systems on nurses' working environment. Two wards of the medical department were selected for this study, using the combined approach of work-sampling methods and questionnaires. In the first intervention a central information system with restricted functions was introduced.

[Steps towards a hospital information system: illustrated by the example of the medical setting of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster].

Implementing hospital information systems for an efficient application of electronic data processing requires the integration of previously introduced departmental systems, which traditionally have been designed only from the viewpoint of an isolated hospital department. Those efforts have to be accompanied by a parallel implementation of a hospital-wide network and the introduction of PC workstations on clinical wards and in outpatient clinics. In this paper currently ongoing efforts at the University Hospital of Münster are presented in order to illustrate how such integration efforts can improve communication and information retrieval in all clinical areas of a hospital.

Data dictionaries at Giessen University Hospital: past--present--future.

The concept of maintaining a medical data dictionary as a HIS core component was fundamental for all HIS development phases since the mid eighties at Giessen University Hospital. Being influenced by an early experimental installation of the HELP hospital information system and its PTXT data dictionary, we kept this approach through a number of development cycles of our own hospital information system. While our first data dictionary implementation (GMDD) was still very close to the PTXT structure (polyhierarchical design with an eight level hierarchy), the second generation dictionary (MDD-GIPHARM) has already been designed using a more flexible semantic network model.

Knowledge based functions for routine use at a German university hospital setting: the issue of fine tuning.

In this paper we present the introduction of knowledge based functions into clinical routine at Giessen University Hospital. For this purpose a therapy planning module at the medical intensive care unit has been extensively redesigned in order to support the structured documentation of drug prescriptions. After introduction of this new HIS component in January 1996 research has been initiated to establish a basic drug therapy knowledge base.

A semantic network model for the medical record of a rheumatology clinic.

For the development of a rheumatology information system, a medical data dictionary was developed that supports all phases of software development. In the design phase, the medical expert described his clinical environment and the rheumatology medical record in a semantic network structure. Causal relationships between different items of the medical record (e.

From HIS to IAIMS: expanding the scope of information processing applications in a German university hospital.

Since the mid eighties the department of medical informatics at the University Hospital of Giessen (Germany) has been engaged in the development of a comprehensive hospital information system. The installation of a campus wide network has set the basis to provide not only clinical patient-oriented information, but also general information resources for research, medical education and administrative purposes, thus creating an environment which in the U.S.

WING--entering a new phase of electronic data processing at the Giessen University Hospital.

At the Giessen University Hospital electronic data processing systems have been in routine use since 1975. In the early years developments were focused on ADT functions (admission/discharge/transfer) and laboratory systems. In the next decade additional systems were introduced supporting various functional departments.

Knowledge representation in pharmacology. A possible application area for the Arden Syntax?

In 1990 the Arden Syntax was proposed as a first version of a standardized syntax for the representation of medical knowledge. For the evaluation of the practicability of this first release we have analyzed the medical and pharmacological knowledge applied in the process of drug prescription. The separation of declarative (e.

Applying expert system techniques to human genetics.

Although expert systems have been developed in a variety of medical areas, there has been very little application of expert system techniques to the field of human genetics. The purpose of the research project described in this paper was (1) to experiment with different types of knowledge representation for data and knowledge structures in human genetics and (2) to explore the applicability of different inference mechanisms for various genetic problems. We present an object-oriented and a fact-based model for the representation of genealogical information and describe two prototype systems.