Biomedical subjects

E M van Mulligen

Publications and source records attributed to E M van Mulligen.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

ARIS: integrating multi-source data for research in andrology.

Although the concept of distributed systems for the storage of patient data is more and more commonly accepted, for some considerable time yet most patient data will be stored in centralized rather than departmental systems. An important advantage of storage in a central system is hospital-wide access to much of the patient data. Disadvantages are however that these data cannot be reviewed through one user interface, and that the structure of the data does not lend itself to exploitation for other purposes. We describe the implementation of an Andrology Research Information System in which these data are integrated in a well-structured database facilitating multiple views on the patient data through a graphical user interface, and clinical research, quality control and summary reports. The data can be analyzed directly using the Hermes workstation. In this way the strengths of the centralized system are combined with those of the dedicated ARIS system.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1995

Problems with integrating legacy systems.

The economic and organizational impact of imposing state-of-the-art technology to the large number of proprietary legacy systems operational in most hospitals requires integrated clinical professional workstations to provide flexible encapsulation mechanisms for these systems rather than reengineering these systems to this new technology. In this paper the implications of different input/output and translation models of legacy systems for their integration into a clinical workstation is described. Examples of legacy systems that have been integrated in the HERMES clinical workstation are presented as examples of the range of difficulties one might encounter. The features that an integrated workstation should offer for integrating a broad range of legacy systems are also addressed in this paper.

Computer Systems↗

PubMed1995

A flexible approach to client-server computing.

The number of standards for client-server computing almost equals the number of client-server applications. Although there are some standardization efforts, there is hardly any experience with applying these solutions to (medical) practice. The layering approach of the integration architecture HERMES anticipates the inclusion of commercial standards (when available and evaluated); it currently supports already the development of client-server applications. The toolkit provides support for the development of the communication between client and server through a callback mechanism. Stubs created with the HERMES toolkit contain a number of built-in callbacks that manage sessions between clients and services. An important feature of HERMES is the ability to include existing legacy systems as if they are true open services. In this way, the growth path from stand-alone to client-server computing can be shortened and the implementation of the client-server architecture can begin immediately. Moreover, the existing legacy systems remain available as a stand-alone solution for daily practice. Clients and services are connected through the HERMES kernel. This kernel uses a database to find the best server match for a request from a client. Moreover, it completes requests with mandatory data and tries to optimize performance. Special features are included to minimize the memory burden of the session-oriented client-server model. Currently, a system for the outpatient clinic cardiology, occupational health care, and clinical data analysis is available.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1994

HERMES: a health care workstation integration architecture.

An architecture is described that facilitates integration of existing databases and applications without modifying them. By means of this architecture, data from different sources dispersed in a network can be combined and directly used in existing applications or applications that have been developed specially for integration. This feature of combining data from different sources into one workstation is viewed as the enabling technology on which computer-based patient records can be built. The abstraction of computer-, network- and application-specific details is completely dealt with by the integration architecture. This integration architecture has been developed with extendibility and flexibility in mind, and allows for a growth-path towards application of the open system paradigm in medicine.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1994

Multiple imputation as a missing data machine.

This paper deals with problems concerning missing data in clinical databases. After signalling some shortcomings of popular solutions to incomplete data problems, we outline the concepts behind multiple imputation. Multiple imputation is a statistically sound method for handling incomplete data. Application of multiple imputation requires a lot of work and not every user is able to do this. A transparent implementation of multiple imputation is necessary. Such an implementation is possible in the HERMES medical workstation. A remaining problem is to find proper imputations.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1994

A cooperative model for integration in a cardiology outpatient clinic.

With the increasing amount of digitally stored patient information, such as images and findings, the possibility and need arise for a system which is able to both store and display this information in a structured, user-friendly way. In the common situation where different information systems are used within one department, this means that the various information systems have to be integrated. However, integration requires more complex management of data, processes and windows. This management can be handled by a Workspace Manager, which controls inter-application tasks, and interaction with the user. Furthermore, this Workspace Manager supports the user with the definition of complex tasks such as collecting problem-related patient information from the various remote systems. In an outpatient clinic for cardiology this architecture is used to achieve cooperative integration of an open Computer Patient Record with a range of information-specific services.

Ambulatory Care Facilities↗

PubMed1993

A prototype integrated medical workstation environment.

In this paper the requirements, design, and implementation of a prototype integrated medical workstation environment are outlined. The aim of the workstation is to provide user-friendly, task-oriented support for clinicians, based on existing software and data. The prototype project has been started to investigate the technical possibilities of graphical user-interfaces, network technology, client-server approaches, and software encapsulation. Experience with the prototype encouraged discussion on both the limitations and the essential features for an integrated medical workstation.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1993

Does an integrated medical workstation really help clinicians?--A formal user evaluation.

A formal user evaluation of an integrated medical workstation for support of clinical data analysis is described. Twenty-six users participated in an assessment study that consisted of a self-instruction course, followed by an experiment in which six clinical data analysis problems had to be solved, and the assessment was concluded with an evaluation form. To facilitate an objective and quantitative assessment, the time spent to the course and to the problems, as well as completeness, correctness, number of solving attempts and persistence were measured. Not all problems were solved by all participants. From an analysis of the measurements, the following conclusions were drawn. (1) Clinicians correctly solved about 69% of all problems tackled. However, they skipped 33% of the problems. (2) Non-clinicians correctly solved 87% of the tackled problems and skipped only 10%. (3) The performance of users not experienced in clinical data analysis was raised to the level of those with clinical data analysis experience. (4) An inventory which can be used to direct future developments was made of the errors of interaction. This assessment study has contributed to gaining insight into the conceptual problems and practical bottlenecks clinicians have with clinical data analysis.

Clinical Medicine↗

PubMed1993

User evaluation of an integrated medical workstation for clinical data analysis.

Results are presented of the user evaluation of an integrated medical workstation for support of clinical research. Twenty-seven users were recruited from medical and scientific staff of the University Hospital Dijkzigt, the Faculty of Medicine of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and from other Dutch medical institutions; and all were given a written, self-contained tutorial. Subsequently, an experiment was done in which six clinical data analysis problems had to be solved and an evaluation form was filled out. The aim of this user evaluation was to obtain insight in the benefits of integration for support of clinical data analysis for clinicians and biomedical researchers. The problems were divided into two sets, with gradually more complex problems. In the first set users were guided in a stepwise fashion to solve the problems. In the second set each stepwise problem had an open counterpart. During the evaluation, the workstation continuously recorded the user's actions. From these results significant differences became apparent between clinicians and non-clinicians for the correctness (means 54% and 81%, respectively, p = 0.04), completeness (means 64% and 88%, respectively, p = 0.01), and number of problems solved (means 67% and 90%, respectively, p = 0.02). These differences were absent for the stepwise problems. Physicians tend to skip more problems than biomedical researchers. No statistically significant differences were found between users with and without clinical data analysis experience, for correctness (means 74% and 72%, respectively, p = 0.95), and completeness (means 82% and 79%, respectively, p = 0.40).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Computer Systems↗

PubMed1993

A new architecture for integration of heterogeneous software components.

An architecture is described that integrates existing applications in a network-wide system. The architecture follows the new open software paradigm, and defines kernel and application services that collaboratively solve the tasks of end-users and provide them with an intuitive user-interface. This paper describes the message language and the kernel mechanism for addressing application services. The architecture has been developed as much as possible to conform with current standards.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1991

A framework for uniform access to data, software and knowledge.

An object-oriented framework is presented that offers integration of various types of entities at one workstation. Five types of entities are distinguished: data, knowledge, functions, presentation forms and hardware, and for each of these entities an 'accessor' is introduced. An accessor offers abstraction from the particularities of access to the entities. For the interaction with this framework a programming language has been defined. A restricted form of the framework has been used to implement a prototype medical workstation for the support of clinical data analysis.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed1991

Integration of an object knowledge base into a medical workstation.

A simple, yet powerful, knowledge base and its development environment is described that can act as a "knowledge server", integrated into a medical workstation. In many areas, such an integration of a knowledge base with other modules and systems is required, but difficult or impossible to achieve with existing commercial development shells. Three applications of the knowledge base are described: a controlled vocabulary for the classification of Congenital Heart Diseases, an extended data model for cardiology, and management of syntax descriptions for the BMDP command language.

Artificial Intelligence↗