Our objective is to implement prototypes of each of the functional components critical for an integrated academic information management system supporting administration, education, patient care, and research. Effort will be focused upon integration of information management through on-going policy development and planning. An electronic telecommunications network will be established between medical center computers, the medical center library, the central teaching facility, and pilot sites. A communications node will be developed to route information between systems, sites, and users. Data element definitions will be standardized. Data translation software and database integration software will be developed. A library resource for cataloguing and transmitting electronically stored information ranging from documents to knowledge databases and applications software will be developed and used to provide access to information and information management tools. Prototypes will be developed in a basic science department and a clinical science department with long-standing commitments to information management. This selection should minimize development of end user software while providing a diverse user group upon which to test policies, planning methodology, acceptance of the standardization required by integration, and the impact of integrated information management.
