Search AMIA.org

Computer-based reminder systems have the potential to change physician and patient behaviors and to improve patient outcomes. We performed a meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials to assess the overall effectiveness of computer-based reminder systems in ambulatory settings directed at preventive care.

A research prototype Physician Workstation (PWS) incorporating a graphical user interface and a drug ordering module was compared with the existing hospital information system in an academic Veterans Administration General Medical Clinic. Physicians in the intervention group received recommendations for drug substitutions to reduce costs and were alerted to potential drug interactions. The objective was to evaluate the effect of the PWS on user satisfaction, on health-related outcomes, and on [...]

Recent technical advances in Internet-based client/server applications and new multimedia communications protocols are enabling the development of cost-effective, platform-independent solutions to the problem of remote access to continuously acquired physiological data. The UCLA Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has developed a distributed computer system that provides access over the World Wide Web (WWW) to current and previously acquired physiological data, such as intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure, and heart rate [...]

Java, a new object-oriented computing language related to C++, is receiving considerable attention due to its use in creating network-sharable, platform-independent software modules (known as "applets") that can be used with the World Wide Web. The Web has rapidly become the most commonly used information-retrieval tool associated with the global computer network known as the Internet, and Java has the potential to further accelerate the Web's application to medical problems [...]

Some observers feel that the federal government should play a more active leadership role in educating the medical community and in coordinating and encouraging a more rapid and effective implementation of clinically relevant applications of wide-area networking. Other people argue that the private sector is recognizing the importance of these issues and will, when the market demands it, adopt and enhance the telecommunications systems that are needed to produce effective [...]

Electronic medical record systems (EMRSs) currently do not lend themselves easily to cross-institutional clinical care and research. Unique system designs coupled with a lack of standards have led to this difficulty. The authors have designed a preliminary EMRS architecture (W3-EMRS) that exploits the multiplatform, multiprotocol, client-server technology of the World Wide Web. The architecture abstracts the clinical information model and the visual presentation away from the underlying EMRS. As a [...]

This case report describes development and testing of a method to extract clinical information stored in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Decentralized Hospital Computer System (DHCP) for the purpose of analyzing data about groups of patients. The authors used a microcomputer-based, structured query language (SQL)-compatible, relational database system to replicate a subset of the Nashville VA Hospital's DHCP patient database. This replicated database contained the complete current Nashville DHCP prescription, provider [...]

To determine whether expert problem-solving strategies can be identified within a large number of student performances of complex medical diagnostic simulations.

Quality in the design and management of a medical school education program depends on the ability to access and analyze relevant information in a timely fashion. The components of medical-education information system should support learning and instruction as well as the administrative and research responsibilities of the program. A system capable of meeting these needs requires core, operational, and strategic components. This article discusses a conceptual schema of the medical [...]