Integrated into the Clinical Workflow

For the information in the Map of Medicine to widely affect clinical behaviour the Map needs to be accessible from a range of clinical systems and provide quick access to actions in those systems.

In addition the Map can provide a first port of call and answer a range of clinical questions through partnerships with 3rd party information providers.

Clinical system integration

Clinical systems that are used to review and record patient information, order tests, book appointments, prescribe or transfer care provide the minute to minute solution for clinicians caring for patients. The Map of Medicine needs to interoperate effectively with existing and future clinical systems in order to fit into the clinical workflow and embed local and national knowledge close to the point of care.

Informa has been working with clinical system vendors to make the Map easily accessible from their systems and in the future to offer one click triggering of actions (such as prescribing) from the Map and viewing of patient information in the context of Map of Medicine pathways.

Following a user-centred design and iterative development approach, integration work has been staged into a series of progressively more advanced “levels" with solutions for each level being developed and tested independently and then implemented with a broad range of partners. Level 1 integration is now live with two partners in England with three more expected to follow in 2007.

The diagrams below illustrate the 3 levels of integration proposed between the Map of Medicine and partner EPR, EMR and PAS solutions (clinical systems).

Current clinical system vendor partners include: iSoft, EMIS, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), INPS and System C.

A framework for knowledge

The Map of Medicine acts as a framework for knowledge through a combination of quick access to 3rd party content provided at national or international level (such as the BNF and the NHS National Library for Health) and local content added through the administrative localisation capability.

Extending this capability to make the Map of Medicine a reliable first port of call to answer a clinical question is a focus of development for Informa. Included in this objective is showing explicitly where information is from, the quality of the information and avoiding contradictory or competing interests that create a confused or unreliable picture.

Current 3rd party content partners include: the British National Formulary, the NHS National Library for Health and First Data Bank Europe.

 

The table below shows the type of information that could be accessed from the Map of Medicine as partnerships are developed further. The current priorities are drug information, topic reviews and patient information.

Clinical actions

Diagnose	Clickable diff diagnosis links	More systems pathways	Images
	Differential diagnosis tools	Patient assessment tools	Poisons database
Order a test	List of necessary tests	Test information (eg. indications)	test protocols
Check test results	Normal values	Intelligent test alarms
Decide on management	Topic reviews	Research/ trials database
Prescribe a drug	Drug information
Refer	Referral letters	Referral criteria
Do a practical procedure	Equipment and technology
Discharge	Discharge letters	Discharge criteria

Other

Links to original research	Medical news	Patient safety (alerts, accident reporting)
User generated content	Complementary medicine	Jobs & training courses	Travel advice
Infectious disease reporting	Occupational health	Real time patient data

Information accessed from the Map as partnerships are developed