IS for a health clinic

Case study from the integration project

Customer Profile

A modern private medical facility in Prague, providing comprehensive outpatient care for several thousand patients. The clinic maintains its medical records in electronic form and uses its own diagnostic devices for its patients, such as ECG, EEG, ultrasound, etc., in addition to the services of other top-level specialised external medical facilities.

Design and implementation of system topology                Extended system topology

The Integrated Information System (IS) of the clinic consists of the following components

• EIS (Economic Information System)
• EIS - Patient (an extension of the economic information system for the administration of patients and the parameters of their programme membership)
• Medicus Komfort (patient information system for daily medical records)
• APS (security system for the building and for controlling access to the premises)
• MediDat (IS module for receiving results from external laboratories)  
• Importer of reports and DICOM (IS module for importing medical reports, including DICOM images, from external medical facilities)  
• Web portal with a client zone (CMS for Web content management with integrated applications for secure viewing of the patient's medical documentation)  
• Web portal with a medical zone (permitting the access by external doctors to the system without the need for any software on the part of the external medical facility; currently in the planning stage)

The individual components are integrated through the use of XML technology and the series of several automated robotic systems that distribute relevant information between the individual modules of the system and receive additional information from external sources.

Examples of utilisation of the system

After registering a new patient, who is assigned to a selected health programme, the patient receives smart card identification and access to the client zone on the website. From that time onwards, all patient-related events are recorded and made available to doctors in one computer location (the doctor can see at the same time, on one screen, health information as well as economic and administrative details concerning the patient).

The system collects information about the health of the patient obtained either directly by the doctors at the premises of the clinic (performing specialised tests using diagnostic instruments and writing the results and medical reports into the Medicus system) or in partner laboratories and medical facilities (such as the results of magnetic resonance imaging, CT, etc. with DICOM images and a text description). Fresh data from external facilities usually appear in the system within 1 hour of their creation (if required, even online) and are thoroughly integrated into the patient's medical records.

The patient him/herself can also monitor the information collected on a web portal (a secure HTTPS server), where information is available to the patient concerning the long term use of the medication prescribed , the dates of past and future visits scheduled and the full texts of the medical reports issued by his/her doctor.

Examples of extended utilisation of the system

The system has been newly extended with the option for inserting the medical report and the medication prescribed via a Web interface that can serve as an entry point into the system for other external doctors, whose medical facility is not permanently connected via the XML interface. The patient can authorise these doctors to have online access to his/her personal medical records. The doctor can then, using the previous reports from other doctors, better determine the correct diagnosis and the results of his/her examination in turn re-enters through a web portal directly into the system in the form of a text file or a MS Word document.

This information is readily available to the patient's personal physician at the clinic, clearly identified amongst the other medical records.

ICT Infrastructure

The entire project, in addition to the integration of the information systems, also involves the complete supplying and installation of information and communication technologies in the newly renovated premises of the clinic.

• CAT6 structured cabling
• Internet
• Racks and servers
• PC stations, monitors and printers
• PABX and telephones
• ESS (Electronic Security System)
• EIS (Entry and Identification system)
• Installation of a CCTV system in the building
• Audio-visual equipment
• Wi-Fi Zone