Use of open standards to implement health maintenance guidelines in a clinical workstation

We are developing a clinical workstation which integrates access to health maintenance guidelines with access to a computer-based medical record. In order to enhance the portability of such a system, we emphasize the use of open standards which can be used in diverse clinical environments. We discuss the use of relational database and expert system technology to provide both patient-specific and patient-independent access to clinical guidelines. We use the Arden Syntax as the format for a textual library which facilitates the storage of structured medical knowledge.