A Conceptual Approach to an Open Hospital Information System

A concept for an open hospital Information System integrating heterogeneous components is proposed. The approach is object-oriented, but is not built directly upon object-oriented database management Systems. Basic ideas are a Software bus, Workflow management with extended transaction concepts, and integrated knowledge-based modules. From the application perspective, conventional and problem-oriented views, support of complex medical and organizational pro-cesses including scheduling, and integrated clinical guidelines are important features.