title: Hospital information systems: chances and obstacles on the way to integration.
abstract: Today, most large hospital information systems (HIS) comprise many heterogeneous application systems, loosely coupled via interfaces. Integration could offer many advantages, like the support of interdepartmental workflows or a consistent patient record. This cannot be achieved, however, by simply interfacing originally unrelated component systems. In this paper, we present relevant concepts of integration, the autonomy/consistency tradeoff, and technical alternatives in some detail. Based on our recent experiences in analyzing an existing HIS and selecting adequate vendors for the needs of our 1250-bed hospital, we then discuss strategies and tradeoffs on the way to a HIS that utilizes state-of-the-art technology to fill the users' needs.
authors.affiliation: Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lenz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blaser
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Kuhn
mesh_terms: D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management; D016490:Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized