Traditional systems such as radiology and pharmacy were best-of-breed application systems.
These systems, due to their focus on the application, performed very poorly in the
areas of data communication and integration. As a result, they became islands of clinical
information, disconnected from the rest of the enterprise. In today’s environment, it is
important for a clinical information system to have the ability to communicate and seamlessly
integrate with the rest of the enterprise. One such example of a CIS is the Centricity
product from GE Medical Systems Information Technology (Centricity, 2002). Shown in
Figure 98-1 is the architecture used by the Centricity Enterprise Clinical Information
System product from GE Medical Systems.
Clinical information systems must incorporate industry standards on all aspects of their
architecture, and this should apply across the board, from the user interface to operating
systems and to clinical workstations. Using PCs as clinical workstations can be economical
and user-friendly. A graphical user interface (GUI), supporting the use of a mouse or
a track ball for most common transactions, would be necessary for the success of these
systems. Using industry standard databases will enable clinical information systems to
readily share data with other systems and to become a part of the enterprise’s clinical
information management solution. Industry standard communication protocols will
enhance accessibility, security, and portability of clinical data over a distributed health
care delivery system. A web-enabled CIS can provide caregivers access to clinical data
over the world wide web using popular desktop browsers. In a distributed health care
delivery system, with patients and caregivers separated by large distances in some cases,
having e-mail messaging capabilities can be a useful clinical tool.