The technical conditions for an open architecture

The development of Open Systems Architecture and the extensive networked interconnection of Health and Hospital Information Systems (HIS) offer great opportunities for improved care, but simultaneously these facilities pose a great danger to the overall security of the information held. The Geneva University Hospital which has built up it centralized informatics system over the last twenty years must now bring about the conditions for a migration towards open system, for although during the last ten years there have been declarations of intent, this architecture is still a long way from final implementation. Like others, the DIOGENE system (the Geneva HIS) has had to face difficult choices especially due to its own successful situation at the end of the eighties. This paper gives a brief explanation of the technical conditions needed in order to fully migrate towards an open system. The first choices towards obtaining optimum communication standards, operating systems and database management systems were the easiest. The real difficulties occurred when deciding on the choice for management tools in this open environment.