Download PDF
Methods Inf Med 2002; 41(03): 237-242
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634442
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH

A Humanist’s Legacy in Medical Informatics: Visions and Accomplishments of Professor Jean-Raoul Scherrer[*]

A. Geissbühler
1   Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospitals, USA
,
C. Lovis
1   Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospitals, USA
,
S. Spahni
1   Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospitals, USA
,
R. D. Appel
2   Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Geneva University, USA
,
O. Ratib
3   Department of Radiology, University of California in Los Angeles, USA
,
C. Boyer
4   Health-On-the-Net Foundation, Geneva
,
D. F. Hochstrasser
5   Geneva Proteomics Center, Central Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Geneva University Hospital and Geneva University, Switzerland
,
R. Baud
1   Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospitals, USA
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
08 February 2018 (online)

    Permissions and Reprints

Summary

Objective: To report about the work of Prof. Jean-Raoul Scherrer, and show how his humanist vision, his medical skills and his scientific background have enabled and shaped the development of medical informatics over the last 30 years.

Results: Starting with the mainframe-based patient-centered hospital information system DIOGENE in the 70s, Prof. Scherrer developed, implemented and evolved innovative concepts of man-machine interfaces, distributed and federated environments, leading the way with information systems that obstinately focused on the support of care providers and patients. Through a rigorous design of terminologies and ontologies, the DIOGENE data would then serve as a basis for the development of clinical research, data mining, and lead to innovative natural language processing techniques. In parallel, Prof. Scherrer supported the development of medical image management, ranging from a distributed picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) to molecular imaging of protein electrophoreses. Recognizing the need for improving the quality and trustworthiness of medical information on the Web, Prof. Scherrer created the Health-On-the-Net (HON) foundation.

Conclusions: These achievements, made possible thanks to his visionary mind, deep humanism, creativity, generosity and determination, have made of Prof. Scherrer a true pioneer and leader of the human-centered, patient-oriented application of information technology for improving healthcare.

Keywords

Hospital information systems - bioinformatics - e-health

* Dedicated in memoriam to Prof. J.-R. Scherrer


 

  • References

  • 1 Coiera E. When Conversation Is Better Than Computation. J Am Med Informatics Ass 2000; 7: 277-86.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 2 Scherrer JR, Baud RH, Hochstrasser D, Ratib O. An integrated hospital information system in Geneva. MD Computing 1990; Mar-Apr 7 (Suppl. 02) 81-9.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 3 Borst F, Appel R, Baud R, Ligier Y, Scherrer JR. Happy birthday DIOGENE: a hospital information system born 20 years ago. Int J Med Informatics 1999; Jun 54 (Suppl. 03) 157-67.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 4 Scherrer JR. Communications-future needs and present solutions. Int J Biomed Comput 1995; Apr 39 (Suppl. 01) 47-52.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 Scherrer JR, Lovis C, Baud R, Borst F, Spahni S. Integrated computerized patient records: the DIOGENE 2 distributed architecture paradigm with special emphasis on its middleware design. Stud Health Technol Informatics 1998; 56: 15-31.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 6 Spahni S, Scherrer JR, Sauquet D, Sottile PA. Towards specialised middleware for healthcare information systems. Int J Med Informatics 1999; Feb-Mar 53 (2-3): 193-201.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 7 Scherrer JR, Spahni S. New opportunities for processing the OSI-7 layer protocols using parallel processing (transputers). Int J Biomed Computing 1994; Jan 34 (1-4): 387-98.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 8 Spahni S, Scherrer JR, Sauquet D, Sottile PA. Middleware for healthcare information systems. Medinfo 1998; 9 Pt 1: 212-6.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 9 Scherrer JR, Spahni S. Healthcare information system architecture (HISA) and its middleware models. Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium. 1999: 935-9.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 10 Andany J, Bjorkendal C, Ferrara FM, Scherrer JR, Spahni S. Authorization & security aspects in the middleware-based healthcare information system. Stud Health Technol Informatics 1999; 68: 315-20.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 11 Spahni S, Scherrer JR, Andany J, Labussiere S, Sauquet D. “THE PILOT”: a tool for connecting existing HIS to an extranet quickly, easily and smoothly. Medinfo 2001; 10 Pt 1 53-7.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 12 Xu Y, D’Alessio L, Jaulent MC, Sauquet D, Spahni S, Degoulet P. Integrating medical applications in an open architecture through generic and reusable components. Medinfo 2001; 10 Pt 1 63-7.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 13 Lyman M, Sager N, Tick L, Nhan N, Borst F, Scherrer JR. The application of natural-language processing to healthcare quality assessment. Med Decision Making 1991; Oct-Dec 11 (4 Suppl): S65-8.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 14 Rassinoux AM, Miller RA, Baud RH, Scherrer JR. Modeling concepts in medicine for medical language understanding. Methods Inf Med 1998; Nov 37 (4-5): 361-72.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 15 Wagner JC, Rogers JE, Baud RH, Scherrer JR. Natural language generation of surgical procedures. Medinfo 1998; 9 Pt 1: 591-5.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 16 Lovis C, Michel PA, Baud R, Scherrer JR. Word segmentation processing: a way to exponentially extend medical dictionaries. Medinfo 1998; 9 Pt 1: 591-5.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 17 Baud R, Lovis C, Rassinoux AM, Michel PA, Scherrer JR. Automatic extraction of linguistic knowledge from an international classification. Medinfo 1998; 9 Pt 1: 581-5.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 18 Thurler G, Borst F, Breant C, Campi D, Jenc J, Lehner-Godinho B, Maricot P, Scherrer JR. ARCHIMED: a Network of Integrated Information Systems. Methods Inf Med 2000; Mar 39 (Suppl. 01) 36-4.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 19 Aubry F, Chameroy V, Giron A, Di Paola R, Gi-baud B, Bizais Y. et al. MIMOSA: Conceptual modelling of Medical Image Management in an Open System Architecture. In: Laxminarayan SaC J-L. eds, editor. 14th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. vol. 3/7. Paris: IEEEEMBS; 1992. p. 1199-201.
    Google Scholar
  • 20 Ratib O, Ligier Y, Hochstrasser D, Scherrer JR. Hospital Integrated Picture Archiving and Communication System (HIPACS) at the University Hospital of Geneva. In: Schneider R, Jost G, Dwyer III S. editors. Medical Imaging V: PACS design and Evaluation. vol. 1446. San-Jose: SPIE; 1991. p. 330-8.
    Google Scholar
  • 21 Huang HK, Ratib O, Bakker AB, Witte G. Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in Medicine. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag; 1991
    Google Scholar
  • 22 Hochstrasser DF, Appel RD, Vargas R, Perrier R, Ravier F, Funk M, Pellegrini Ch, Muller AF, Scherrer J-R. Clinical molecular scanner: The Melanie project. MD-Computing. 8, 85-91, 1991
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 23 Appel RD, Hochstrasser DF, Funk M, Vargas R, Pellegrini Ch, Muller AF, Scherrer J-R. The MELANIE project – From a Biopsy to Automatic Protein Map Interpretation by Computer. Electrophoresis. 12, 722-35, 1991
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 24 Herbert BR, Sanchez JC, Bini L. Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis:The State of the Art and Future Directions. In: Proteome research: new frontiers in functional genomics. Wilkins MR, Williams KL, Appel RD, Hochstrasser DF. (Eds), Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg; 1997. pp. 13-33.
    Google Scholar
  • 25 Appel RD, Palagi P, Walther D, Vargas JR, Sanchez JC, Pasquali C, Ravier F, Hochstrasser DF. Melanie II: a third generation software package for analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis images – I. Features and user interface. Electrophoresis 1997; 18: 2724-34.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 26 Muller M, Gras R, Appel RD, Bienvenut WV, Hochstrasser DF. Visualization and analysis of molecular scanner peptide mass spectra. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2002; Mar 13 (Suppl. 03) 221-31.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 27 Binz PA, Muller M, Walther D, Bienvenut WV, Gras R, Hoogland C, Bouchet G, Gasteiger E, Fabbretti R, Gay S, Palagi P, Wilkins MR, Rouge V, Tonella L, Paesano S, Rossellat G, Karmime A, Bairoch A, Sanchez JC, Appel RD, Hochstrasser DF. A molecular scanner to automate proteomic research and to display proteome images. Anal Chem 1999; Nov1 71 (Suppl. 21) 4981-8.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 28 Bienvenut WV, Sanchez JC, Karmime A, Rouge V, Rose K, Binz PA, Hochstrasser DF. Toward a clinical molecular scanner for proteome research: parallel protein chemical processing before and during western blot. Anal Chem 1999; Nov1 71 (Suppl. 21) 4800-7.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 29 Hochstrasser D, Frutiger S, Paquet N, Bairoch A, Ravier F, Pasquali C, Sanchez J-C, Tissot J-D, Bjellqvist B, Vargas R, Appel R, Hughes G. Human liver protein map: a reference database established by microsequencing & gel comparison. Electrophoresis 1992; 13 (Suppl. 12) 992-1001.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 30 Hoogland C, Tonella L, Sanchez JC, Binz P-A, Bairoch A, Hochstrasser DF, Appel RD. The ‘99 SWISS-2DPAGE database update. Nucleic Acids Res 2000; 28: 286-8.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 31 Bairoch A, Apweiler R. The SWISS-PROT protein sequence database and its supplement TrEMBL in 2000. Nucleic Acids Res 2000; 28: 45-8.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 32 Peitsch MC, Stampf DR, Wells TNC, Sussman JL. The Swiss-3DImage collection and PDBBrowser on the World-Wide Web. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 1995; 20: 82-4.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 33 Appel RD, Bairoch A, Hochstrasser DF. A new generation of information retrieval tools for biologists: the example of the expasy WWW server. Trends Biochem Scienc TiBS (222) 1994; 19 (Suppl. 06) 258-60.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 34 Hochstrasser DF, Appel RD, Golaz O, Pasquali C, Sanchez J-C, Bairoch A. Sharing of Worldwide Spread Knowledge Using Hypermedia Facilities & Fast Communications Protocols (Mosaic & World-Wide Web): The Example of ExPASy. Methods Inf Med 1995; 34: 75-8.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 35 Boyer C, Appel RD, Griesser V, Scherrer JR. Internet for physicians: a tool for today and tomorrow. Revue Medicale Suisse Romande 1999; Feb 119 (Suppl. 02) 137-44.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 36 http://www.hon.ch
    PubMed
  • 37 Hannah Arendt in “The origin of totalitarism”. New York: 1955
    Google Scholar
  • 38 Boyer C, Baujard O, Baujard V, Aurel S, Selby M, Appel RD. Health On the Net automated database of health and medical information. Int J Med Informatics 1997; Nov 47 (1-2): 27-9.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 39 Baujard O, Baujard V, Aurel S, Boyer C, Appel RD. MARVIN, multi-agent softbot to retrieve multilingual medical information on the Web. Medical Informatics (Lond). 1998; Jul-Sep 23 (Suppl. 03) 187-91.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 40 Boyer C, Baujard V, Griesser V, Scherrer JR. HONselect: a multilingual and intelligent search tool integrating heterogeneous web resources. Int J Med Informatics 2001; Dec 64 (2-3): 253-8.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 41 Boyer C, Selby M, Scherrer JR, Appel RD. The Health On the Net Code of Conduct for medical and health Websites. Comput Biol Med 1998; Sep 28 (Suppl. 05) 603-10.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 42 Fallis D, Fricke M. Indicators of accuracy of consumer health information on the Internet: a study of indicators relating to information for managing fever in children in the home. J Am Med Informatics Ass 2002; Jan-Feb 9 (Suppl. 01) 73-9.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar