Implementing a Physician's Workstation using client/server technology and the distributed computing environment

PWS is a physician's workstation research prototype developed to explore the use of information management tools by physicians in the context of patient care. The original prototype was implemented in a client/server architecture using a broadcast message server. As we expanded the scope of the prototyping activities, we identified the limitations of the broadcast message server in the areas of scalability, security, and interoperability. To address these issues, we reimplemented PWS using the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). We describe the rationale for using DCE, the migration process, and the benefits achieved. Future work and recommendations are discussed.