An implementation of a virtual patient record using Web services

Abstract

Virtual patient records provide a means for integrated access to patient information that may be scattered around different healthcare settings. Within the boundaries of a health district providing all levels of care, this concept can be implemented in a corporate Intranet environment to support longitudinal patient care activities across the participating healthcare providers. In this context, a virtual patient record implementation enables autonomous healthcare providers to operate in a cooperative working environment and apply continuity of care. Workflow and web services technologies provide an appropriate infrastructure for satisfying collaboration and coordination requirements by integrating heterogeneous healthcare applications and by automatically routing the medical information needed to authorized actors in a healthcare process. This paper presents a virtual patient record architecture that allows integrating geographically dispersed medical information within a health district and enhancing collaboration and coordination of authorized workgroups using workflow and web services technologies. An implementation of the proposed architecture is also presented.