The future of knowledge-based components in the electronic health record.
Traditional monolithic healthcare information systems (HIS) no longer meet the requirements of today's distributed enterprises and the rapidly changing healthcare environment. The ability of applications to communicate, interpret, and act intelligently upon complex healthcare information has assumed paramount importance. The future lies in the development of flexible component-based architectures that can operate seamlessly within the workflow of a healthcare environment. A key design goal is "graceful degradation," i.e., providing the best decision support possible within the context of available patient data. The First DataBank Drug Toolkit is used as a case study. Several technical challenges associated with building truly plug and play components are discussed.
Broverman
C A
CA
First Databank-A Subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, San Bruno, California, USA. Carol_Broverman@firstdatabank.com
Schlesinger
J M
JM
Sperzel
W D
WD
Kapusnik-Uner
J
J
D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D005103:Expert Systems; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized