Infobuttons: anticipatory passive decision support

"Infobuttons" are context-specific links from one system (typically a clinical information system) to a second system (typically an on-line knowledge resource) that attempt to use contextual information to anticipate users' information needs. Infobuttons have been around for over 15 years but are only recently finding wide-spread adoption, with various "infobutton managers", and infobutton-like projects being developed at several academic medical centers. Vendors of electronic health records systems have begun working with vendors of knowledge resources to create "infobutton access" methods for communicating from the former to the latter. In response to this increased interest, and the attendant need to standardize communication between clinical systems and infobutton managers and between infobutton managers and knowledge resources, Health Level 7 (HL7) is developing a standard message structure for exchange contextual information and information-needs requests. At least one project is underway to develop a tailoring environment that can be used by health librarians to customize infobutton managers for use at their own institutions, with their own users, and their preferred knowledge resources.