Buffone G J, Moreau D, Beck J R
Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Am J Clin Pathol. 1996 Apr;105(4 Suppl 1):S17-24.
Traditionally, information technology in health care has helped practitioners to collect, store, and present information and also to add a degree of automation to simple tasks (instrument interfaces supporting result entry, for example). Thus commercially available information systems do little to support the need to model, execute, monitor, coordinate, and revise the various complex clinical processes required to support health-care delivery. Workflow computing, which is already implemented and improving the efficiency of operations in several nonmedical industries, can address the need to manage complex clinical processes. Workflow computing not only provides a means to define and manage the events, roles, and information integral to health-care delivery but also supports the explicit implementation of policy or rules appropriate to the process. This article explains how workflow computing may be applied to health-care and the inherent advantages of the technology, and it defines workflow system requirements for use in health-care delivery with special reference to diagnostic pathology.
传统上，医疗保健领域的信息技术帮助从业者收集、存储和呈现信息，还为简单任务增添了一定程度的自动化（例如支持结果录入的仪器接口）。因此，市面上现有的信息系统在支持对各种复杂临床流程进行建模、执行、监测、协调和修订以提供医疗保健服务方面作用甚微。工作流计算已在多个非医疗行业得到应用并提高了运营效率，它能够满足管理复杂临床流程的需求。工作流计算不仅提供了一种定义和管理医疗保健服务中不可或缺的事件、角色和信息的方法，还支持明确实施适用于该流程的政策或规则。本文解释了工作流计算如何应用于医疗保健领域以及该技术的固有优势，并特别参照诊断病理学定义了用于医疗保健服务的工作流系统要求。
