The broad objectives of this project are to increase access to clinical information by expanding the existing institutional technology and to foster the development of health care professionals' critical use of information to answer immediate patient care information needs.
A specific aim i s to interface a basic hospital information system, the hospital's CHIPS (Children's Hospital Information Processing System) with medical information in a novel linkage. Full text health sciences information from the Micromedex Computerized Clinical Information System and other full text sources in CD-ROM format would be linked to the hospital's patient care system. Another aim is to teach end users skills to access information in a variety of formats, transfer between data systems, and evaluate the retrieved information to critically use it. A further aim is to serve as a prototype for both the interfacing of the technologies and for interdisciplinary collaboration among library, computer and medical sciences; and the last aim is to provide dial-in capabilities to information for community physicians. The incorporation of medical information and patient records systems that would result is the health relatedness of the project. The design of the project is to install new technology that would enable new types of linkages enhancing the institution's connectivity and improve the already existing electronic infrastructure of CHM. In effect, a CD-ROM resource library accessible through the patient care information system would result. The advanced technology proposed would provide new access routes for information, increase the availability of information, transfer information to its point of use, and promote effective use of relevant information directly by health care professionals on the wards themselves. The methodology is to establish direct dissemination and coordination of clinical information to end users on the wards or in the community by connecting two disparate information systems. To obtain access to clinical information, health care professionals currently must leave the wards or offices, and sometimes the hospital, to seek relevant, patient care information. This project would incorporate existing technology with a CD- ROM on a Novell LAN to merge systems together for access.
