Biomedical subjects

S A Socratous

Publications and source records attributed to S A Socratous.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Integrating DXplain into a clinical information system using the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web(WWW) offers a cross-platform environment and standard protocols that enable integration of various applications available on the Internet. The authors use the Web to facilitate interaction between their Web-based Clinical Information System and a decision-support system-DXplain, at the Massachusetts General Hospital-using local architecture and Common Gateway Interface programs. The current application translates patients laboratory test results into DXplain's terms to generate diagnostic hypotheses. Two different access methods are utilized for this model; Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and TCP/IP function calls. While clinical aspects cannot be evaluated as yet, the model demonstrates the potential of Web-based applications for interaction and integration and how local architecture, with a controlled vocabulary server, can further facilitate such integration. This model serves to demonstrate some of the limitations of the current WWW technology and identifies issues such as control over Web resources and their utilization and liability issues as possible obstacles for further integration.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1996

Just tell me what you want!: the promise and perils of rapid prototyping with the World Wide Web.

Construction of applications using the World Wide Web architecture and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents is relatively simple. We are exploring this approach with an application, called PolyMed now in use by surgical residents for one year. We monitored use and obtained user feedback to develop new features and eliminate undesirable ones. The system has been used to keep track of over 4,200 patients. We predicted, several advantages and disadvantages to this approach to prototyping clinical applications. Our experience confirms some advantages (ease of development and customization, ability to exploit non-Web system components, and simplified user interface design) and disadvantages (lack of database management services). Some predicted disadvantages failed to materialize (difficulty modeling a clinical application with hypertext and inconveniences associated with the "connectionless" nature of the Web). We were disappointed to find that while integration of external Web applications (such as Medline) into our application was easy, our users did not find it useful.

Attitude to Computers↗

PubMed1995

The informatics superhighway: prototyping on the World Wide Web.

We have experimented with developing a prototype Surgeon's Workstation which makes use of the World Wide Web client-server architecture. Although originally intended merely as a means for obtaining user feedback for use in designing a "real" system, the application has been adopted for use by our Department of Surgery. As they begin to use the application, they have suggested changes and we have responded. This paper illustrates some of the advantages we have found for prototyping with Web-based applications, including security aspects.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Internet as clinical information system: application development using the World Wide Web.

Clinical computing application development at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center has been limited by the lack of a flexible programming environment that supports multiple client user platforms. The World Wide Web offers a potential solution, with its multifunction servers, multiplatform clients, and use of standard protocols for displaying information. The authors are now using the Web, coupled with their own local clinical data server and vocabulary server, to carry out rapid prototype development of clinical information systems. They have developed one such prototype system that can be run on most popular computing platforms from anywhere on the Internet. The Web paradigm allows easy integration of clinical information with other local and Internet-based information sources. The Web also simplifies many aspects of application design; for example, it includes facilities for the use of encryption to meet the authors' security and confidentiality requirements. The prototype currently runs on only the Web server in the Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia University, but it could be run on other Web servers that access the authors' clinical data and vocabulary servers. It could also be adapted to access clinical information from other systems with similar server capabilities. This approach may be adaptable for use in developing institution-independent standards for data and application sharing.

Computer Communication Networks↗