Development of a clinical information tool for the electronic medical record: a case study

What is the process of developing a clinical information tool to be embedded in the electronic health record of a very large and diverse academic medical center?

The development took place at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System.

The clinical information tool developed is a search box with subject tabs to provide quick access to designated full-text information resources. Each subject tab offers a federated search of a different pool of resources. Search results are organized "on the fly" into meaningful categories using clustering technology and are directly accessible from the results page.

After more than a year of discussion and planning, a clinical information tool was embedded in the academic medical center's electronic health record.

The library successfully developed a clinical information tool, called Clinical-e, for use at the point of care. Future development will refine the tool and evaluate its impact and effectiveness.