Evolution of a regional health-care information system--the design phase

In 1996 a program of the Soros Foundation was launched to study a regional health care inodel Main stake holders of health care financing and providing in three counties in South-Western Hungary found the idea appealing and the Soros Model Region Program was started. This paper outlines the activity of the second sub-project of the model region program: the development of a regional health care information system. The build-up of a data and knowledge base serving the differing needs of mentioned goals is based on international standards. Availability and user involvement is based on different media for presenting the information as printed publications, CD-ROM data bases and World Wide Web availability. A congruency and coherency principle is maintained by a unified data model used for different purposes and a planned unified communication protocol among all participants in the model region program. Studies regarding health care status, economics and financing on regional level show that a better fitting health care services profile and a more flexible resource management might be achieved based on the mentioned regionality principle.