Operations research aims to assist managers faced with problems of coordinating activities; improving the quality of care of services delivered; making optimal resource allocation decisions and generally, managing services and institutions. Operations research (or O.R.) was originally developed in response to the problems of the second World War. It was characterised then by a unifying and clear objective; clear problems that had to be solved and the use of inter-disciplinary teams to analyse and solve identified problems. This analysis often drew on mathematical techniques. After the war,...

The Working Group 5 of the International Medical Informatics Associ- ation (IMIA) dedicates its work to information systems in primary and ambulatory care. The first conference of this Working Group in Hanno- ver in 1980 produced a review of the state of the art of that time and gave perspectives for future development (Rienhoff, O. and Abrams, M.E. (eds.): The Computer in the Doctor's Office, Horth- Holland, Amsterdam: 1980). In the meantime, a rapid development has taken place. Therefore it seemed appropriate to hold another working conference which was con- ducted in Munich, December 2-6,...

As research on expert systems has moved well into its second decade, it has become popular to cite the limitations of the phenomenologic or associational approach to knowledge representation that was typical of first generation systems. For example, the Internist-1 knowledge base represents explicitly over 600 diseases, encoding associated disease manifestations (signs, symptoms, physical findings, and lab abnormalities) but failing to deal with the reasons that those findings may be present in the disease [Miller, R. A. 82]. In recent years Pople has sought to add detailed causal models to...

Medical information systems such as Radiology Management Information Systems (RIS), Picture Archiving and Communications (PACS) and Hospital Information Systems (HIS) will soon be standard tools to support routine work in hospitals. An interface between PACS/RIS and RIS/HIS is increasingly necessary in order to co-ordinate the flow of information throughout these systems. This book discusses a systematic analysis of interfacing strategies. An introduction is given to the status of present radiology departments and trends for the future. Then, to define a PACS-RIS interface in a multivendor...

The writing of this text arose through the opportunity of one author (D.F.) to spend a sabbatical leave studying the developments within the Stockholm County health operations. The computerization project that had started virtually 10 years previously. focussed on the Danderyd hospital. had received continuing attention in the world scene. It therefore seemed an appropriate site for study for one charged with responsibility for developing computerized hospital information systems. An intent to assemble a private report became an attempt to write a public monograph when it was discovered that...

SALUTIS UNITAS, Unity for Health, an organization 'Uniting physicians of the world to foster better health for all people through international exchange of technological information', was officially founded in 1972 after preceding years of preparation. One of its main objectives is the scientific communication, be it by meeting or by publications. So several scientific meetings could be held, mostly together with other scientific organizations, and resulted in the publication of the respective proceedinqs 1. Studies were commissioned 2 to investigate trends in health care delivery and their...

The European Federation for Medical Informatics has established itself as a regional body coordinating activity in medical informatics. The Congress in Toulouse, MIE-81, from 9 - 13 March 1981, is the third congress in the ser ies following MIE-78 in Cambr idge, and MIB-79 in Berlin with a gap during 1980 for the world congress MEDINFO-80 in Tokyo. The rationale behind all these congresses is the scientific need to share results and ideas and the educational need to train a wide variety of professional staff in the potential of health care and medical informatics. All the caring professions...

The German edition of this manual appeared in 1979. Its main objective then was to extend help to those engaged in multiaentric therapeutic studies, especially with respect to the "Federal Government's Program on Promoting Research and Development in the Service of Health." Experience with therapeutic studies in the Federal Republic of Germany showed that considerable problems as to methods and implementation of such studies exist. The manual was an attempt to present current metho- dological knowledge and the experience obtained from completed studies in the light of the international...

The worldwide economic recession of the last years - sometimes described as an outright depression similar to the one of the early thirties - has led many health policy analysts and even policy makers to revive the old question of whether, and in what respect, there is a close relationship between economic development and health. In tackling this question, to- day's health services research looks rather helpless: even if a truth has the appearance of a truism, it will not necessarily be aCknowledged in practice. While it is an established fact that social as well as (macro)economic conditions...