Supporting cooperative medicine: the Bermed Project

Bermed logically integrates distributed, multimedia patient data and gives authorized physicians transparent access to it through a single workstation. In conjunction with this integration, the project provides asynchronous remote access to the data and synchronous desktop conferencing between physicians connected by ATM and ISDN wide area networks. Although other projects around the world have similar aims and implementations, Bermed seems unique in its wide area logical integration of distributed patient records covering multiple specialties and in its large-scale field trials using advanced broadband communications. We summarize parts of the Bermed effort, concentrating on how it integrates patient data and supports physician cooperation through remote access to documents and multimedia desktop conferencing.<>