January 2007
OD Professional™ and the Future of Information Systems
At EMRlogic, we understand the rapid pace of change in both Healthcare and Information Technology and care about its implications for the technology life cycle of OD Professional™. We take seriously the concern of our users that their software could become obsolete. Future-proofing OD Professional is a win-win commitment for us and our clients. Here's what we're thinking about. Here's what we're doing about it.
The future of Information Systems will be greatly influenced by coming dramatic changes to the Internet and how it is structured. Such changes comprise Internet2 . Central to Internet2 is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Extended capabilities of Internet2 will arise from Knowledge Bases that form the primary repositories of Internet2.
Knowledge Bases will be used in all areas of Healthcare Information Technology. A further subset, Communities of Interests (COI) will be able to use this knowledge to provide new levels of service urgently needed in today's healthcare world.
Many information systems today are based upon Client-Server Architecture (CSA) using the Internet as the primary means of communication. Client-Server Architecture limits the sharing of knowledge amongst interested parties due to inter-communication complexities, costs and risks. While the Internet has served us well, it was not designed with a view to how we might work to solve today's biggest problems.
The infrastructure of Internet2 will be based on knowledge systems. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the means by which we will deliver the vast resources of robust Knowledge Bases to end users. SOA is a wave for the future of all software. At OD Professional, we are already incorporating SOA into our architecture.
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) entails the use of loosely-coupled software services to support the requirements of business processes and software users. Network resources in an SOA environment are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.
Communities of Interest (COI)
Communities of Interest (COI), defined by their collective concern with the resolution of shared problems, bring together stakeholders from different communities of practice (COP). The various niches within eyecare represent both a COI and its respective COP.
The future of Healthcare Information Technology will be centered around the creation of a robust healthcare Knowledge Base built on Internet2. This Knowledge Base will be used by expert systems, such as OD Professional, to meet industry challenges.
It is the commitment of EMRlogic to remain abreast of critical issues in the world of Healthcare IT and continue, as a best-of-breed provider and partner, to deliver seamless solutions for our users.
