Overview
The organization of the four parts in this book follows a logical progression. The first part sets the scene of health care, describes trends in medical informatics, and also includes some fundamental principles of computer science. It demonstrates new ways of object-oriented HIS modelling and new software engineering techniques in open architectures in order to keep them vital and responsive to the user's expectations. The second part focuses on hospital management systems, discussing departmental information systems such as radiological, laboratory, nutrition, and nursing. The third part covers more medically oriented applications such as cardiology, image management, and telemedicine. Finally, the last part provides general conclusions and some guidelines. Although technology is evolving rapidly, the major concepts highlighted in this book will not change for some time. Therefore, the principles described here provide agood understanding tomorrow's technology throghout the next decade.