Supporting information management for regional health information systems by models with communication path analysis

The focus in healthcare has been changed from isolated procedures in a single healthcare institution to the patient-oriented care process spreading over institutional boundaries. So interest shifts from hospital information systems (HIS) to regional health information systems (rHIS). More than with HIS an rHIS needs systematic information management. We present the 3LGM/sup 2/ meta-model and the corresponding 3LGM/sup 2/ tool to support information managers in health care regions. Every sequence of enterprise function, i.e. an information process, needs certain communication paths between those application components supporting the functions. The search for appropriate communication paths within a rHIS model is interpreted as all-pairs shortest-paths problem which is solved using the Floyd- Warshall algorithm. Method and tool has been applied successfully in the setting of the SAXTELEMED project in Saxony, Germany.