Developing a virtual patient record using XML and web-based workflow technologies

Virtual patient records (VPR) provide a means for integrated access to patient information that may be scattered around different healthcare settings. Within the boundaries of a health district providing all levels of care, this concept can be implemented in a corporate Intranet environment to support longitudinal patient care activities across the participating healthcare providers. In this context, a VPR implementation enables autonomous healthcare providers to operate in a cooperative working environment and apply continuity of care. Workflow systems bring this collaboration and cooperation into effect by automatically routing the medical information needed by authorised actors in a healthcare process. This paper presents a VPR framework that allows integrating geographically dispersed medical information within a health district and enhancing collaboration and coordination of authorised workgroups by means of a web-based workflow system. An implementation of the proposed framework is also presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.