Methods Inf Med 2009; 48(06): 531-539
DOI: 10.3414/ME09-01-0023
Original Articles
Schattauer GmbH

Comparing a Japanese and a German Hospital Information System

Assessing Structural Quality by 3LGM2 Models
F. Jahn
1   Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
,
L. Ißler
2   Systemantics Gmb H, Aachen, Germany
,
A. Winter
1   Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
,
K. Takabayashi
3   Department of Medical Informatics and Management, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan
› Institutsangaben
Weitere Informationen

Publikationsverlauf

received: 25. März 2009

accepted: 07. Mai 2009

Publikationsdatum:
17. Januar 2018 (online)

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Summary

Objectives: To examine the architectural differences and similarities of a Japanese and German hospital information system (HIS) in a case study. This cross-cultural comparison, which focuses on structural quality characteristics, offers the chance to get new insights into different HIS architectures, which possibly cannot be obtained by inner-country comparisons.

Methods: A reference model for the domain layer of hospital information systems containing the typical enterprise functions of a hospital provides the basis of comparison for the two different hospital information systems. 3LGM2 models, which describe the two HISs and which are based on that reference model, are used to assess several structural quality criteria. Four of these criteria are introduced in detail.

Results: The two examined HISs are different in terms of the four structural quality criteria examined. Whereas the centralized architecture of the hospital information system at Chiba University Hospital causes only few functional redundancies and leads to a low implementation of communication standards, the hospital information system at the University Hospital of Leipzig, having a decentralized architecture, exhibits more functional redundancies and a higher use of communication standards.

Conclusions: Using a model-based comparison, it was possible to detect remarkable differences between the observed hospital information systems of completely different cultural areas. However, the usability of 3LGM2 models for comparisons has to be improved in order to apply key figures and to assess or benchmark the structural quality of health information systems architectures more thoroughly.