Medical Informatics Europe 78

These proceedings reflect the major scientific contribution by the First International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics. The European Federation for Medical Informatics is a co-operative venture between the National Informatics Societies of Europe. It is sponsoring this first inter­ national meeting organised by the Medical Specialist Groups of the British Society under the guidance of a European Scientific Programme Committee. The challenge of medical informatics has been well taken and the scientific papers by its members cover a wide range of topics dealing with medical records, laboratory investigation, indexing and administrative systems, nursing records, planning and administration modelling, data bases, text processing, transferability, user education, privacy, etc. Not published in this volume are presentations by industry about hardware and software. Also at the meeting there will-be teaching sessions for doctors, nurses, scientists and administrators who are just entering this field which are also not published. Medical informatics has established itself as an important area of medical activity and its growing application, as this conference illustrates, suggests a very rich potential for the future. Aids to medical decision making and modelling are newer areas of activity, where significant progress has been made. Sociological changes have taken place to meet this challenge and developments in the issues of privacy and confidentiality are important, as also are user education, and the teaching of medical informatics to medical students and to doctors.

Medical Records.- Coronary care information system; its use in the assessment of prognosis in acute myocardial infarction.- ACIS - a clinical information system.- An analysis of 3 years’ experience with the re-designed system for basic medical documentation within the MSH.- Experiments with medical diagnostic systems.- An on-line s interactive information system for kidney transplantation.- MFS — a user-oriented system for diagnostic data management.- An attempt to evaluate the contribution of common laboratory findings: an experiment in neurology.- Text Processing.- Artificial medical languages, a solution for clinical needs in documentation, example using REMEDE system.- KLAUKON — a microprocessor system for free text acquisition with automatic error checking.- Free text analysis: an attempt to solve the documentation problem.- General Practice.- A survey of developments in medical records and information systems in the United Kingdom.- Computerization of the medical record of the general practitioner: systematic registration at each contact patient — general practitioner.- The provision of data processing facilities for medical practitioners.- Satisfying the information needs of the general practitioner for improved patient care.- Image Processing.- Information processing in research and routine nuclear cardiology.- Image analysis in histo-cytopathology.- Computer simulation of monochromatic X-rays.- Real time computation of pulmonary mechanics by digital computer.- The computer in the functional study of the kidney with radionuclides.- Improvement of programming efficiency in medical image processing by a dialog language.- Systems support for the routine requirements of clinical neurophysiology.- Informatics Technology.- On the expression of relations in medicine: linguistic aspects.- Software of dialogues: physician — computer — patient.- Formal languages and their semantics tools for the application programmer.- A decision rule in parenthood diagnosis and its consequences.- Interactive programming language for validation and interrogation of evolutive data.- A system for computer-aided prognosis — a management function of the medical information system WAMIS.- Theory of evidence and medical diagnostic.- Computer-aided classification of chronic bronchitis in comparison with other diagnostic tools.- Training in Medical Informatics.- Review of the MUMPS language and its applications to medicine.- The communicational structure of medical information systems and its educational consequences.- Educational aspects in medical informatics.- Implementation and User Education.- COMPADOS: how to convince a physician to use a computerized medical record system.- The influence of privacy acts on medical informatics.- Rules for confidentiality — practical experience in a community based realtime system.- The objectives and design philosophy of the real-time computer project at the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre.- Modelling.- The utilization and validation of mathematical models in medicine and public health.- Testing alternative inventory policies for a regional blood bank.- A model of the foetal circulation for the interpretation of foetal heart rate patterns.- Compartmental analysis of the distribution of Buflomedil.- Databases.- A large database on a minicomputer.- OP72 — data technical aspects.- On the design of a database system for clinical research.- Using CODIL to handle poorly structured clinical information.- Clinical Laboratories.- A laboratory data processing system for non-numeric results.- A surgical pathology file experiences with 30,000 records.- Data structures and data base problems in clinical chemistry information systems.- Clinical laboratory systems.- A common approach to a variety of clinical laboratories.- Signal Processing.- A 128-channel electrocardiographic data acquisition system.- Features to segmentate EEG recordings a comparative study.- ABSCESS — a system for the analysis by small computer of EEG signals in a clinical setting.- Computer analysis of motor unit discharge patterns.- Neurophysiological signals averaging stimuli minimization.- Computerized determination of lung function parameters.- Health Care Planning.- National policy and co-ordination of health care EDP in Finland.- The impact of computer technology on health care.- A study of the demands made on casualty services by the population of socially deprived areas.- Monitoring of alimentary and respiratory infections.- The transfer of outpatient clinics to rural hospitals: a feasibility study and cost-benefit analysis.- Models, information systems and the management of health care organizations.- Transferability.- The patient-service scheduling system at the Dresden Medical Academy and its further development on the basis of an ESER EDPS.- Treatment.- A computer program for calculating intravenous feeding regimens and its application in a teaching hospital and a district general hospital.- Compliance aspects of a computer-assisted anticoagulation control system.- Special Interest Papers.- Is a large computer system of value in the intensive care unit?.- The strategic analyses and initial implementation of the shared hospital information system.- On-line support for basic medical information in a large university hospital.- An approach to efficient on-line mass storage of physiological parameters in an intensive care environment.- Evaluation.- A new approach to evaluation in the NHS experimentai computer programme.- New tools for evaluation: Their application to computers.- Evaluation of the diaphane dialysis registry.- Nursing.- The relationship between nursing and medical informatics.- Nursing intervention scoring system: a concept for management, research and communication.- Implementation of a patient monitoring system at Herlev Hospital.- Indexing and Administrative Systems.- A review of the national standard child health computer system and its potential benefits.- A review of the use of computers in hospital and community indexes in the United Kingdom.- Computerized support of activities and identification of related data in Kiel KIS.- Computer system for blood donors’ management.- Feed-back in an obstetric data base.- Replicable, multi-purpose patient index systems — an analysis of some necessary features.- Author Index.