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The aim of the project ARIANE is to model and implement seamless, natural, and easy-to-use interfaces with various kinds of heterogeneous biomedical information databases.

Information has become a capital good and is focused on outcomes. Clinical guidelines are being developed to standardize care for populations, but patient preferences also need to be known when planning individualized care. Information technologies can be used to retrieve both types of information. The concern is that nurses are not adequately prepared to manage information using technology. This paper presents five strategic directions recommended by the National Advisory Council [...]

The "guidelines movement" was formed to reduce variability in practice, control costs, and improve patient care outcomes. Yet the overall impact on practice and outcomes has been disappointing. Evidence demonstrates that the most effective method of stimulating awareness of and compliance with best practices is computer-generated reminders provided at the point of care. This paper reviews five steps along the path from the development of a guideline to its integration [...]

To evaluate a "lexically assign, logically refine" (LALR) strategy for merging overlapping healthcare terminologies. This strategy combines description logic classification with lexical techniques that propose initial term definitions. The lexically suggested initial definitions are manually refined by domain experts to yield description logic definitions for each term in the overlapping terminologies of interest. Logic-based techniques are then used to merge defined terms.

This paper describes details of four scales of a questionnaire-- "Computers in Medical Care"--measuring attributes of computer use, self-reported computer knowledge, computer feature demand, and computer optimism of academic physicians. The reliability (i.e., precision, or degree to which the scale's result is reproducible) and validity (i.e., accuracy, or degree to which the scale actually measures what it is supposed to measure) of each scale were examined by analysis of the [...]

Guidelines regarding patient-provider electronic mail are presented. The intent is to provide guidance concerning computer-based communications between clinicians and patients within a contractual relationship in which the health-care provider has taken on an explicit measure of responsibility for the client's care. The guidelines address two interrelated aspects: effective interaction between the clinician and patient, and observance of medicolegal prudence. Recommendations for site-specific policy formulation are included.

The authors evaluated the use of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) as a medical knowledge source for the representation of medical procedures in the MAOUSSC system.