An integrated electronic medical record system (iEMRS) with decision support capability in medical prescription
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13287261211255347 |
| Pages | 236-245 |
| Date | 10 August 2012 |
| Published date | 10 August 2012 |
| Author | S.L. Ting,W.H. Ip,Albert H.C. Tsang,George T.S. Ho |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
An integrated electronic medical
record system (iEMRS) with
decision support capability
in medical prescription
S.L. Ting, W.H. Ip, Albert H.C. Tsang and George T.S. Ho
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how a clinical decision support system can help in
prescription and knowledge acquisition processes.
Design/methodology/approach – An integrated electronic medical records system (iEMRS) is
designed to enhance the decision support quality in prescription.
Findings – By evaluating the system performance through 135 prescription records collected from a
Hong Kong medical organization, iEMRS shows a satisfactory result in suggesting medicines that is
properly the same as the decisions made by the physicians.
Originality/value – Compared with the static clinical guidelines built (manually) in the traditional
clinical decision support system, knowledge in iEMRS is generated by the knowledge discovery result
from professional experiences of various physicians and patient histories, which are more dynamic in
nature. A treatment algorithm, designed in data mining technique, is introduced to improve
information management in medical organizations by integration of decision support capability and
EMRS, and supplement the deficiencies of traditional clinical decision support system.
Keywords Hong Kong, Datamining, Decision support systems,Medical prescriptions,
Information technology, Electronicmedical records
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The Institute of Medicine defined electronic medical records system (EMRS) as a
longitudinal collection of electronic health information for and about persons in 2003. It
allows electronic access to person- and population-level information by authorized
users and supports efficient processes for health care delivery. A lot of medical
organizations around the world have adopted EMRS, for example, in some Asian
countries (like Singapore, Japan and Taiwan), EMRS has been adapted in a long time
(Khanapi et al., 2008). Information and communications technology approach to EMRS
is accepted in hospitals as well as clinical functions and logistics activities to enhance
the transmission of patient medical records and communication among physicians.
In 1994, hospitals and clinics in Japan launched “Health information Strategy 21” that
processes EMRS with the mission to provide quality and efficient healthcare services.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Acknowledgement is given to Dr Peter Lo, Dr Francis Liu, Dr C.W. Lo and Miss Maggie Poon for
their guidance on issues in clinical coding and medical knowledge in general. The authors would
also like to express their sincere thanks to the Research Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University for providing the financial support for this research work.
JSIT
14,3
236
Journal of Systems and Information
Technology
Vol. 14 No. 3, 2012
pp. 236-245
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/13287261211255347
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