Meeting clinician information needs by integrating access to the medical record and knowledge resources via the Web.

MINDscape is a web based integrated interface to diverse sources of clinical information including both patient specific information (electronic medical record) as well as medical knowledge (the "digital library") to provide "just in time" information at the point of care. It was developed at the University of Washington to meet clinical information needs both as identified locally and by a review of the literature. Beta testing by over 600 clinicians is in progress and medical centers wide access scheduled for Fall 1997. We describe the information needs we sought to meet and the ongoing evaluation approach we are taking to ensure the information needs of a diverse group of clinicians are met. The iterative evolution of the interface from prototype, to alpha to large scale beta testing is reported. Integration of information occurs at three levels: integration of information by patient, integration of information by provider, and integration of patient specific information with medical reference material and decision support tools.

Architecture for a Federated Drug Reference in a managed care environment.

We describe a model of drug information query management that supports the integration of various types of pharmaceutical information and the delivery of that information through a common interface. Our prototype drug reference system makes use of the World Wide Web client/server architecture as a front-end to federate this data. Although originally intended as an electronic Hospital Formulary, the system has been redefined as a result of input from physicians to include formularies of multiple managed care plans. The underlying database is designed for integration with an electronic medical record as well as education and research resources for faculty and students in an academic medical center environment.