Framework for a clinical information system.

The current status of our work towards the design and implementation of a reference architecture for a Clinical Information System is presented. This architecture has been developed and implemented based on components following a strong underlying conceptual and technological model. Common Object Request Broker and n-tier technology featuring centralised and departmental clinical information systems as the back-end store for all clinical data are used. Servers located in the 'middle' tier apply the clinical (business) model and application rules to communicate with so-called 'thin client' workstations. The main characteristics are the focus on modelling and reuse of both data and business logic as there is a shift away from data and functional modelling towards object modelling. Scalability as well as adaptability to constantly changing requirements via component driven computing are the main reasons for that approach.