Medical informatics: An emerging medical discipline

The use of computer technology in medicine is no longer the domain of only a few “gadget” happy high-tech aficionados. The rapid pace of medical progress and the increasing demands on physicians' time mandate that mechanisms be developed to deliver the tools of contemporary information management directly into the hands ofall practicing physicians. It is with this intent that the Council on Long-range Planning and Development and the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association have developed an informational report on Medical Informatics. The technology for producing information about medicine and patients is well into the information age. However, the technology for managing this information has not kept up, at least to the extent of being available in medical facilities where it is needed. Most users of medical information, physicians included, have not crossed the threshold into the electronic/computer era of information acquisition, distribution, and assimilation. The continuing development of the physician as computer user will create a more efficient work environment for the physician while at the same time improving patient care.     

Data base management,feedback control,and the Regenstrief Medical Record

Because of the differences in informational needs among medical practices, medical record systems should be fiexible. The use of data base management and use-oriented command languages helps to achieve flexibility. The Regenstrief Medical Record System is based upon a data base management system and two user-oriented command languages (the RDB Command Language and CARE). Most batch reports, file maintenance procedures, and ad hoc retrievals can be specified by the user by means of these two languages. This means that the user can specify which reports he wants and how they should look. Daily on-line activities are performed by application programs. The data base system also provides flexibility to these programs since the content and format of many of the display screens are defined by statements that are similar to the command language statements and are stored within a text file. The Regenstrief Medical Record System now carries records for 60,000 patients.     

Computer support for clinical and ancillary support areas

Military medicine is aggressively meeting the need for enhanced information flow and improved efficiency in the delivery of health care by implementing automated systems. A Department of Defense (DOD) Agency, the Tri-Service Medical Information Systems (TRIMIS) Program office, is centrally procuring automated data processing to support clinical and patient appointment activities within the DOD health care system of 165 hospitals and 287 clinics. The procured systems are then implemented with the assistance of the military departments. Systems are now supporting cardiology, pharmacy, radiology, clinical laboratory, and patient appointment and scheduling. Capabilities of all these systems are detailed in the paper. To date, the TRIMIS efforts have contributed significantly to more efficient information processing, thus ensuring continued quality health care through the DOD.     

Computerized Physician Order Entry: Helpful or Harmful?

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is touted as a major improvement in patient safety, primarily as a result of the Institute of Medicine''s 1999 report on medical errors and the subsequent formation of the “Leapfrog Group” of companies to preferentially direct their employees'' health care to those institutions that install such systems (as part of directives that “Leapfrog” feels will improve patient care). Although the literature suggests that such systems have the potential to improve patient outcomes through decrease of adverse drug events, actual improvements in medical outcomes have not been documented. Installation of such systems could actually increase the number of adverse drug events and result in higher overall medical costs, particularly in the first few years of their adoption.In the last five years, hospitals, including our own, have begun to use computerized systems that require physicians and other health care providers to electronically enter patient care orders.¹ Before this time, only a handful of hospitals used such systems. These computer programs contain algorithms that alert health care providers to potentially harmful therapeutic decisions before orders are processed. The installation of these systems is costly (millions of dollars) and requires major behavioral changes, not only by physicians, but also by the entire health care organization.² In January 2003, Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles removed its recently installed computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system from use after almost unanimous protest from the medical staff. Why are hospitals and other health care organizations pursuing this avenue at this time? Does the literature support the premise that these systems are beneficial for patient care? Do such systems decrease total health care costs? The answers to these questions are still evolving. In this forum, we address these questions and describe some of the pertinent medical literature on this subject.     

Health services research in alcoholism

Alcoholism has become an important health care problem for the United States and the VA medical care system. The percentage of inpatients in Veterans Administration hospitals with a diagnosis of alcoholism rose from 13.0% in 1970 to a high of 15.6% in 1977. Health services research work in alcoholism has generally fallen into four major areas: community diagnosis; utilization of services by alcoholics; the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of services; and the organization of information systems and their applicability to alcoholism. Obstacles to research include a poor understanding of the prevalence of the disease among the veteran's population, but the system offers many more opportunities than obstacles. A new information system. SATAR (Substance Abuse Treatment Automated Records), offers a chance for large-scale investigation of the problem of alcoholism among VA patients when combined with other information systems and allows for special comparisons through its large, integrated network of hospitals and clinics.     

A chartless record—Is it adequate?

The computerized medical record supported by The Medical Record (TMR) has been the only record of physician-patient encounters on the nephrology service of the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center since April 1981. Physicians using the system evaluated the adequacy of the computerized record as a replacement for the paper chart. The computerized record was able to capture and display all pertinent data. Manual or computerized narratives provided a useful supplement to the core computerized record only in those rare instances that a physician needed to point out which of the data in the record were important to his decision making.     

Adapting to the implementation of a Medical Information System: A comparison of short- versus long-term findings

This study compares short and long-term responses of a panel of hospital employees to the introduction of a Medical Information System. Personality attributes, education, age, and the person's work shift consistently affected the quality of employee adaptation.     

BioSYNTHESIS: Access to a knowledge network of health sciences databases

Users of the IAIMS Knowledge Network at the Georgetown University Medical Center have access to multiple in-house and external databases from a single point of entry through BioSYNTHESIS. The IAIMS project has developed a rich environment of biomedical information resources that represent a medical decision support system for campus physicians and students. The BioSYNTHESIS system is an information navigator that provides transparent access to a Knowledge Network of over a dozen databases. These multiple health sciences databases consist of bibliographic, informational, diagnostic, and research systems which reside on diverse computers such as DEC VAXs, SUN 490, AT&T 3B2s, Macintoshes, IBM PC/PS2s and the ATT ISN and SYTEK network systems. Ethernet and TCP/IP protocols are used in the network architecture. BioSYNTHESIS also provides network links to the other campus libraries and to external institutions. As additional knowledge resources and technological advances have become available, BioSYNTHESIS has evolved from a two phase to a three phase program. Major components of the system including recent achievements and future plans are described.     

Structured spreadsheet modeling in medical decision making and research

The construction, evaluation, implementation, and use of models representing various algorithms, strategies, methods, theories etc. based on the analysis of great amounts of data are necessary in both Medical Research and Decision Making (MR/DM). Performing such tasks manually is not only time consuming and tedious, but also very error-prone. The appearance of a computer with its ability to store and process information has opened an opportunity to facilitate enormously and improve activities. However, the effective use of computers is limited by difficulties accompanying noncomputerspecialists like doctors, nurses, and other medical staff in learning and using conventional programming languages, tools, and techniques. In this paper we present Structured Spreadsheet Modeling as a possible solution, and show that it is applicable in the MR/DM field on a concrete basis.     

Prescription: Office automation

The mission statement of Minneapolis Children's Medical Center reads, in part, “Mindful of the unique characteristics of children, MCMC's missions is to provide a team of health care professionals attuned to the special needs of the total child, at all ages from prenatal through adolescent, in a uniquely designed facility.” Therefore an “open” professional staff, rather than a medical staff, was established consisting of physicians, dentists, and other health professionals with advanced degrees at the master's level or above, including, but not limited to, psychologists, social workers, clinical nurse specialists, chaplains, audiologists, and speech pathologists. This professional staff has grown to 650 members, extremely large for a 122-bed hospital. The professional staff office needed help in managing the volume of information associated with this large staff. To meet that need, in addition to the needs of other hospital areas, MCMC's administration made the decision to purchase office automation equipment and established a committee of hospital-wide users, rather than managerial staff, to survey their own needs, select vendors, and make the final recommendation. The word-processing system selected now maintains 650 physician profiles, each with 44 variables. Whereas prior to automation 25 separate lists needed to be updated each time a professional staff member was either added or deleted, now only individual physician profiles need to be adjusted. Programs were then designed to automate the many reports that must be done. In this paper we propose to describe this selection process and relate how the system developed has streamlined and simplified the work of the professional staff office to enable it to increase its output by over 300% without adding staff.     

A prototype generalized network technology for hospitals

A demonstration implementation of a distributed data-processing hospital information system using an intelligent local area communications network (LACN) technology is described. This system is operational at the UCSF Medical Center and integrates four heterogeneous, stand-alone minicomputers. The applications systems are PID/Registration, Outpatient Pharmacy, Clinical Laboratory, and Radiology/Medical Records. Functional autonomy of these systems has been maintained, and no operating system changes have been required. The LACN uses a fiber-optic communications medium and provides extensive communications protocol support within the network, based on the ISO/OSI Model. The archtecture is reconfigurable and expandable. This paper decribes system architectural issues, the applications environment, and the local area network.     

Government regulations and other influences on the medical use of computers

This paper presents points brought out in a panel discussion held at the 12th Hawaiian International Conference on System Sciences, January 1979. The session was attended by approximately two dozen interested parties from various segments of the academic, government, and health care communities. The broad categories covered include the specific problems of government regulations and their impact on specific clinical information systems installed at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, opportunities in a regulated environment, problems in a regulated environment, vendor-related issues in the marketing and manufacture of computer-based information systems, rational approaches to government control, and specific issues related to medical computer science.     

A problem-oriented approach to medical information systems

A relatively simple computer-based information system developed for a primary care group practice at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital contributes to the management of the practice, to improvement of medical care for patients within the group, and to research studies on resource utilization in the management of chronic diseases and the evaluation of care of chronically ill patients. Preliminary results from the use of the information system are encouraging and demonstrate that much may be achieved by information systems that do not attempt to computerize the entire medical record.     

National health care surveys and health care management

The bulk of medical care in the United States is provided in hospitals, physicians' offices, and nursing homes. The National Center for Health Statistics conducts three health record surveys that collect information on patient and provider characteristics and the services provided in these three settings. This paper describes each of these three surveys in terms of background (scope and data set), design, collection, processing procedures, and data dissemination. In addition, specific examples of how the survey data have been or can be used for management purposes in terms of monitoring, evaluating, and planning the utilization of health care in the United States are given.     

Overcoming Structural Constraints to Patient Utilization of Electronic Medical Records: A Critical Review and Proposal for an Evaluation Framework

There are constraints embedded in medical record structure that limit use by patients in self-directed disease management. Through systematic review of the literature from a critical perspective, four characteristics that either enhance or mitigate the influence of medical record structure on patient utilization of an electronic patient record (EPR) system have been identified: environmental pressures, physician centeredness, collaborative organizational culture, and patient centeredness. An evaluation framework is proposed for use when considering adaptation of existing EPR systems for online patient access. Exemplars of patient-accessible EPR systems from the literature are evaluated utilizing the framework. From this study, it appears that traditional information system research and development methods may not wholly capture many pertinent social issues that arise when expanding access of EPR systems to patients. Critically rooted methods such as action research can directly inform development strategies so that these systems may positively influence health outcomes.Electronic patient record (EPR) systems fundamentally change the way health information is structured. An EPR is a dynamic entity, affording greater efficiency and quality control to the work processes of clinicians by providing data entry at the point of care, logical information access capabilities, efficient information retrieval, user friendliness, reliability, information security, and a capacity for expansion as needs arise.^1,2An EPR system promotes patient participation in care to a greater extent than paper records because of its capacity for interaction. Patients can transmit real-time vital signs and other forms of data from their bedside, home, or office and receive up-to-date supportive information customized and contextualized to their individual needs.^3,4In this journal, Ross and Lin recently presented a comprehensive review of the world literature on the effects of patient access to medical records, noting a potential for modest benefits and minimal risk, while also citing that the impact of access may vary depending on the patient population in question.⁵ This is consistent with findings in the information system literature that systems fail when inadequate attention is paid to stakeholder needs and work processes during design⁶ or when assumptions are made about how well a system fits with the user''s role within the organization during implementation.⁷Medical records are structured primarily for the use of clinicians and administrators. Patients typically are not counted among the primary users of an EPR system. They tend to be given access sometime after the system is implemented in the organization. Structural concessions and decisions made when the system is first implemented, such as fragmented data entries and foreign lexicons, can make the information difficult for patients to follow and the records all but impossible for them to effectively use.⁸     

Informed Consent

There have been significant changes in the doctor patient relationship with the impact of technology in day-to-day practice. More and more patients are aware of their rights and are keen to make free choice and decision on their treatment. This helps them to choose the treatment of their choice from the options available and to select a physician of their choice. Doctor''s decisions are being questioned regarding their correctness and there is a need to educate the patient, on what one offers by way of treatment. In some procedures and types of treatment, patient needs to be educated and informed of the merits and demerits of the treatment available. This will help the patient to make appropriate choice and also to accept some adverse outcome of treatment. Towards this end, all countries are looking afresh at the necessity of Informed Consent. Methods adopted by some countries are highlighted to help our physicians practice them in an appropriate way. A lot of remedial work needs to be done to minimize future litigation, as many doctors misunderstand their legal obligations and haven''t caught up with the change in judge''s thinking.Key Words: Doctor-patient relationship, Consumer ethics, Medical negligenceClinical ethics teaches physicians, a wide range of specific ethical issues e.g informed consent, truth telling, end-of-life decisions, advance directives (substitute decision making for incompetent patients) and increasing third-party constraints on the autonomy of both patients and physicians [1].There have been many changes, between 1965 and 1970 on the subject of medical ethics and physician-patient relationship. The traditional medical ethical principle required that the physician do what he thought would benefit the patient. The principle of mutual trust protected these decisions. The medical profession even refused to recognize the wishes of the patient and felt that he knows what is best for the patient – a paternalistic attitude. The physicians failed to accept that the patient is entitled to make his own free choice and decision-the principle of autonomy [2].Patients had earlier placed their faith in the physician''s higher education and the authority of his medical role. But of late doubts have been raised about the quality of doctor''s decision, as their decisions vary depending upon the facts that :

• a.He is a long trusted physician or an emergency room doctor seeing the patient for the first time,
• b.The patient is acutely ill or is suffering from a chronic illness,
• c.The procedure / treatment is a one time or it involves prolonged or repeated treatment,
• d.There are multiple / alternative choices or only one choice,
• e.Patient''s economic and social status, source of fund for treatment, and
• f.Doctor-patient relationship [3].

The rights (autonomy) of the patient have deeply eroded the old model of doctor-patient relationship. The emerging model prefers to treat a doctor as a service provider (medical) for hire, governed by negotiation and a commercial relationship. The consumer ethics has displaced the physician from their previous prominent status and allow patients to say, “Doctors are not Gods“. The patient has now the ability to select and dismiss their doctors. They have the resources and can express their preferences about making decisions on general or even specific treatments. They can ask questions, reject proposals, and often find allies in dealing not only with doctors but also hospitals from legal literature, support group, counsellors, and social workers [3].The clinical-ethical process of shared decision-making is mirrored by the legal doctrine of Informed Consent (IC). Informed consent is defined as voluntary acceptance by a competent patient of a plan for medical care after physician adequately discloses the proposed plan, its risks and benefits, and alternative approaches. This requires a process of effective communication and education between the physician and patient [1]. Informed consent is a process with the elements of autonomous authorization, free from coercion or manipulation, decision-making capacity, disclosures to the patients, and comprehension [4].In academic medicine, as teaching of medical ethics became formalized in the 1970s, moral principles of respect for autonomy, non-malfeasance (the obligation to avoid causing harm), beneficence (obligation to provide benefits and to balance benefits against risks), and justice, assumed a central role. Thirty years later, IC is still written with the intent to protect the medical profession from lawsuits. Indeed, court views of IC also include a therapeutic privilege for physicians not to inform a patient who may be harmed by the disclosed information [5].Over the past two decades a considerable volume of litigation in many countries have focused on the consent issue and the doctrine of informed consent has assumed a significant role in the medical negligence debate.     

Automation: The competitive edge for HMOs and other Alternative Delivery Systems

Until recently, many, if not most, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) were not automated. Moreover, HMOs that were automated tended to be automated only on a limited basis. Recently, however, the highly competitive marketplace within which HMOs and other Alternative Delivery Systems (ADS) exist has required that they operate at a maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Given the complex nature of ADSs, the volume of transactions in ADSs, the large number of members served by ADSs, and the numerous providers who are paid at different rates and on different bases by ADSs, it is impossible for an ADS to operate effectively or efficiently, let alone show optimal performance, without a sophisticated, comprehensive automated system. Reliable automated systems designed specifically to address ADS functions such as enrollment and premium billing, finance and accounting, medical information and patient management, and marketing have recently become available at a reasonable cost.     

Medical applications in the TANDEM-16 multiple computer system environment

This paper addresses the question of reliability and the TANDEM-16 approach to facilitate reliable computers. Specifically, the use of the TANDEM-16 within the medical environment is described. Three current applications within the Medical Computing Resources Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas are developed, each characterized by different reliability considerations.     

Economic incentives and control

Within the field of economic research on hospital performance there are four major areas of need. These include the estimation of hospital cost functions, the development of new models of the nonprofit hospital, the development of better measures of hospital output, and an analysis of the determinants of hospital use. Within the Veterans Administration there exist a limited number of policy options to study or aim for in further research, but comparison between the system and other systems is possible and the prospective budgeting process in the VA should also be examined. Specific research can be directed at the case mix and the casespecific pattenns of use in the VA system. The effects of the teaching requirements of the VA hospitals also can be more closely studied and the effects of physician and hospital characteristics on the length of stay of inpatients is an important question and may have implications for research outside the system. The potential data wealth of the VA Patient Treatment File and its centralized budgeting system can produce much useful research.     

The use of graphic design in an interactive computer teaching program

The widespread diffusion of affordable computers into the scientific and educational community has provided the opportunity to design medical and scientific teaching programs illustrated either by hand or by utilizing commercially available software and manipulating existing computer generated images. The medical illustrator can provide the ideal aesthetic link between text format information and the visual representation of such knowledge in a concise presentation format. The availability of interactive multimedia programs has given the medical illustrator an environment to create and enhance Hypermedia designed specifically for the parpose of medical education. This paper will focus on the incorporation of illustration and screen design into “CT The Came,” an experimental medical teaching program currently being developed in the Johns Hopkins Body CT Imaging Laboratory. The program is designed to provide an enjoyable approach to learning Computed Tomography (CT), and is directed toward an audience of medical students, residents, and fellows.