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Lecture notes in medical informatics
BOOK REVIEWS
Lecture Notes in Medical Informatics, Volume 2, The Stockholm County Medical Information System, by Donald Fenna, Sixten Abrahamsson, Sven OlofLBijw, and Hans Peterson. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1978, vi + 163 pp. 1978 ($9.80).
This book provides a most detailed study of the computerised medical information b~stern implemented at Stockholm County, Sweden. A decade or so ago much attention was focussed on the computerisation project at the Danderyd hospital, which is one of the 54 hospitals in Stockholm County. It was the county authorities who developed this major information system at the new hospital facility at Danderyd and its initial objectives included a county-wide applicability. To be lirst in any application necessarily has its disadvantages, but the experience gained becomes invaluable to anyone else engaged in developing such systems. This book is therefore essential reading for anyone who is charged with the responsibility for developing a computer&d system. What the author says started as a private report, has become a monograph which is both lengthy and highly descriptive. It starts with an introduction to Sweden-and the local health care system and continues to detailed descriptions of user procedures, terminal displays and computer files. Its fourteen chapters provide an outline of the system, including details of the hardware/software base, a discussion on the organisation of the database, and a useful outline of its various sub-systems. The text was most readable and was well illustrated. Two chapters in particular reminded the reader of the international concern about these systems. Firstly, regarding their privacy and confidentiality and secondly, the costing and the benefits of the hospital information system. Many people will perhaps question the need for such detail, and the need to describe what is now outdated equipment, and a system written in a locally produced programming language. The authors answer is to ask ‘should we re-invent the wheel’ in the computer industry? and one of the obvious replies is that reinvention occurs because we generally know so little of what our colleagues have created. B. H. RUDALL 83 Znf. J. Bio-Medical Computing (11) (1980) 8S85 @ Elsevier/North-Holland Scientific Publishers Ltd.
Lecture Notes in Medical Informatics, Volume 2, The Stockholm County Medical Information System, by Donald Fenna, Sixten Abrahamsson, Sven OlofLBijw, and Hans Peterson. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1978, vi + 163 pp. 1978 ($9.80).
This book provides a most detailed study of the computerised medical information b~stern implemented at Stockholm County, Sweden. A decade or so ago much attention was focussed on the computerisation project at the Danderyd hospital, which is one of the 54 hospitals in Stockholm County. It was the county authorities who developed this major information system at the new hospital facility at Danderyd and its initial objectives included a county-wide applicability. To be lirst in any application necessarily has its disadvantages, but the experience gained becomes invaluable to anyone else engaged in developing such systems. This book is therefore essential reading for anyone who is charged with the responsibility for developing a computer&d system. What the author says started as a private report, has become a monograph which is both lengthy and highly descriptive. It starts with an introduction to Sweden-and the local health care system and continues to detailed descriptions of user procedures, terminal displays and computer files. Its fourteen chapters provide an outline of the system, including details of the hardware/software base, a discussion on the organisation of the database, and a useful outline of its various sub-systems. The text was most readable and was well illustrated. Two chapters in particular reminded the reader of the international concern about these systems. Firstly, regarding their privacy and confidentiality and secondly, the costing and the benefits of the hospital information system. Many people will perhaps question the need for such detail, and the need to describe what is now outdated equipment, and a system written in a locally produced programming language. The authors answer is to ask ‘should we re-invent the wheel’ in the computer industry? and one of the obvious replies is that reinvention occurs because we generally know so little of what our colleagues have created. B. H. RUDALL 83 Znf. J. Bio-Medical Computing (11) (1980) 8S85 @ Elsevier/North-Holland Scientific Publishers Ltd.