title: The role of communication servers in the architecture of healthcare information systems.
abstract: Communication between departmental subsystems within a hospital information system (HIS) is more and more supported by dedicated communication servers (CS). One of the main advantages is a centralized and standardized flow of information. Beside this "classic" approach a communication server may be embedded on at least two other hierarchical levels in the architecture of healthcare information systems: in an organizational unit within a hospital (subsystem) but also in large scale healthcare information systems covering aspects of communication between the involved external healthcare providers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Statistics, University of Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: K U
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Heitmann
mesh_terms: D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D008122:Local Area Networks; D012984:Software; D018511:Systems Integration