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Pathologists, computers, and control of the clinical laboratory database
Pathologist
|August 8, 1986
Insights
Competition for hospital clinical databases is rising due to differing administrator and physician goals. Pathologists need a semi-autonomous, decentralized lab information system to protect database integrity.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Hospital Administration
- Clinical Pathology
Background:
- Hospitals face increasing competition for access and control over clinical databases.
- Divergent goals between hospital administrators and physicians are a primary driver of this competition.
- Maintaining the integrity of laboratory data is crucial for patient care and research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the causes of competition for hospital clinical databases.
- To propose a strategy for pathologists to safeguard the integrity of the lab database.
- To advocate for a specific information system architecture within hospitals.
Main Methods:
- The study is based on the author's suggestions and analysis of hospital information system dynamics.
- It involves a conceptual examination of administrative and clinical objectives.
- The approach focuses on the implications for laboratory data management.
Main Results:
- Competition for clinical databases stems from conflicting administrator and physician objectives.
- A fully centralized system poses risks to the integrity of the laboratory database.
- Pathologists' control over their data is essential for maintaining accuracy and reliability.
Conclusions:
- Pathologists must actively advocate for a decentralized laboratory information system.
- A semi-autonomous system for the lab's information is recommended.
- This approach will help maintain the integrity of the clinical database amidst competing interests.
Abstract:
There will be increasing competition in hospitals for access to and control of the hospital clinical database, and one of the major causes of this competition, the author suggests, is that administrators and physicians have a different set of goals and objectives. To maintain the integrity of the lab database, pathologists must lobby vigorously for a partly decentralized system with the lab's information system operating semi-autonomously.