Conceptual database modeling for understanding and developing information management applications.

Abstract

In response to rising health care costs and changing expectations concerning the quality of health care, information management is becoming increasingly important in the practice of medicine; more specifically, it is beginning to effect significant changes in radiology practice and patient care. Radiologic applications of information management include reporting diagnostic information generated from film interpretation as well as tracking utilization patterns of different imaging modalities and the variability of clinical outcomes, documenting the type of information sought by and provided to clinicians, and evaluating departmental quality standards and performance goals. Conceptual database modeling enables radiologists to understand and participate in the development of information systems, thereby improving the likelihood of successful results. In object-role modeling, groups of relevant objects and roles are identified and used to create elementary facts that form the "building blocks" for information models. The resultant models can easily be communicated, reviewed, and revised, allowing decreased development time and optimizing inclusion of relevant features in the target relational database. Increasing the amount of clinical and management input in the development process may help information systems better meet user needs, become accepted and more often used, and ultimately succeed.