Information Infrastructure For Healthcare (October 1994)

Healthcare Lifetime Data Repository Infrastructure

Sponsor: 3M Company, Health Information Systems

• Project Performance Period: 2/1/1995 - 1/31/1997
• Total project (est.): $9,086,000.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,973,000.00

The 3M project seeks to provide key elements in the technology infrastructure that will be needed to support integrating the many disparate information systems used in the healthcare industry. The project includes developing a common medical data dictionary to facilitate the reliable storage and retrieval of complex medical information that integrates the data into a "Lifetime Data Repository," a code translator to provide easy translation from one medical coding system to another, developing object-oriented database elements to facilitate implementing the data dictionary in individual healthcare enterprises, and an expert-system alert writer to provide messages to clinicians. The ultimate goal is a uniform system for recording patient data that can reliably translate, store, and retrieve data regardless of the system that originated the data. The project also hopes to produce two prototype applications, a code translator and an "Expert Alert Writer." An automated alert system provides a check on patient care by comparing patient data to built-in care rules and generating an "alert" message when it discovers possible conflicts -- perhaps one part of a healthcare enterprise has scheduled the patient for elective surgery but another part is treating the same patient for an infection that would make surgery inappropriate. The planned Expert Alert Writer will be a knowledge-based tool to allow clinicians to write their own automated alert systems without the need to rely on programmers.

For project information:

Carie A. Anderson, (612) 737-5090

ATP Project Manager

Barbara Cuthill, (301) 975-3273
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov