Health information systems – past, present, future

Example of a visualized information system architecture, here of the computer-supported part of the hospital information system of the Medical School Hanover from 1984 ([1], p. 9).

Example of a visualized information system architecture, here of the computer-supported part of the information system of the Innsbruck University Medical Center from 2002 ([34], p. 31), using the three-level graph-based meta model (3LGM, , see also Ref. [37]), here to describe the so-called logical tool layer.

Logical tool layer of a three-level graph-based meta model (3LGM) of relevant health@net system components. Medical documents from the clinical information system (CIS, in Fig. 2 denoted as KIS) are addressed to their receivers (according to the eVGA-Server, an LDAP address directory which is hold by the Austrian Medical Association) and transferred either to a gateway server (which delivers the documents directly into an inbound directory of the GP-system over the commercial health care networks, step 1a) or onto a server for document management which provides the files for a secure Web portal (step 1b) and the GP's Web browser also directly into the inbound directory of the GP-system (from Ref. [46]).

Highlights of new technologies in hospital information systems, from the viewpoint of Professor Peter Reichertz in 1984 ([1], p. 30).

Roughly trying to visualize the tendency towards computer-based information processing tools, dealing with a steadily growing amount of data in health information systems.

Roughly trying to visualize the lines of development of health information systems concerning range, users, functionality, complexity, data and technology, based on the general tendency of a growing amount of data to be processed and stored, as described in Fig. 5.