From Patient98 to Thor2005: from a component-based multimedia workstation for cardiac care to a complete cardiology information system

A complete cardiology information system is under development. This system should provide to physicians, nurses and others not only access to all patient data but also to the appropriate guideline information, as well as background material (journals, textbooks). The different "building blocks" of the system have been developed or will be developed by different organisations. The integration of the different blocks (systems) provides the physician access all to patient related information, for a specific difficult patient problem with the knowledge base related to his specific problem (what is the appropriate course of action) as well as registry/survey/information (what do my colleagues do in practice). This article describes the following main characteristics of this system more extensively: interactive guideline-based decision support; general report generator; unique unambiguous relation between images, results and reports.