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OpenClinical is currently focusing its services on work by and for three constituencies:
clinical, research and commercial. The Public zone includes links to e-Health applications
for the public freely available on the WWW.
The Background section of the site includes
information for all target consitituencies. This area covers the
clinical and technical context of knowledge management for healthcare, from the Evidence Based Medicine movement and clinical guidelines to
developments in Health Informatics, Artificial Intelligence and computerised clinical decision support systems.
Clinicians and healthcare professionals: It is now humanly impossible for clinicians and other healthcare professionals to maintain comprehensive
knowledge of best clinical practice, even in individual specialties let alone general medicine.
Many organisations publish systematic reviews, guidelines and similar material. But busy clinicians have
little time to read. How do we translate these vital resources into practical assistance at the point of
care? Various kinds of knowledge management systems are being developed to do this, from decision support
tools to flexible careflow systems.
OpenClinical staff will endeavour to keep you informed about developments which are relevant to you as a
healthcare professional. For example, our resources currently include general introductions to new and
emerging technologies, and we shall progressively build up directories and other information about
projects, products and suppliers. Register as a member of this constuency and we'll automatically tell
you whenever significant new information is posted. But, we know we can't know everthing! If you know
something that we don't please tell us at open openclinical.org
You are already involved in developing tools for clinical IT or thinking of a project in the area of
knowledge management technologies, dealing with dissemination of clinical guidelines, decision support
systems, "careflow" and so on. You want a site where you can find out about established and emerging
techniques and technologies and one that tells you when there is something new. You probably also want
to be able to follow up interesting technical topics in depth and a portal from where you can access
other sites dealing with important related subjects like electronic patient records, medical terminology
and language, and who in the technical community is doing what! Register as a member of this constituency
and we'll automatically tell you whenever significant new information is posted. But, we know we can't
know everthing! If you know something that we don't please tell us at openopenclinical.org
Technology suppliers and commercial services:
The eHealth and Knowledge business markets are projected to be worth billions (or trillions?) of dollars by
2010 (or was it 2005?). Whatever the real figures the only way that technology-based markets grow is
when companies offer products and services that people want, and the only way that markets grow vigorously
and for the benefit of users is when there are lots of suppliers with a sense of excitement about what
the technologies can bring. OpenClinical wants to help improve patient care by helping industry to track
the technical state of the art, and put them in touch with potential partners and customers. Visit
the site regularly to keep up with what the techies are doing and where the hot spots are.
Register as a member of the industry constituency and we'll keep you posted. The OpenClinical team
also plan to develop services to help you promote your offerings to the other constituencies of the
OpenClinical community.
"Health care has discovered the Internet and the Internet has discovered health care! A rapidly growing
number of Internet sites are dedicated to helping consumers find the information they need to make
decisions about their health and health care. Patients are creating online communities that provide
peer support, information on the latest research, and personal stories about their experiences"
(Institute of the Future). OpenClinical is one of these sites, though with a distinctive interest in
promoting awareness of advanced technologies that can improve the quality and safety of healthcare,
and in the ethical use of such technologies. Individual members of the public who care about the
quality of healthcare and the possibilities of new technologies, but are not clinicians or techies,
will be able to use OpenClinical as a source of accessible articles, opinions and discussions, and
as a portal to find out about the people, the projects and the products which are creating the medical
knowledge management revolution. We aim to provide information for patients and
carers, managers and policy makers, journalists and the media, and all who are interested in the
dissemination and effective use of medical knowledge. Register as a member of this constituency and
we'll keep you posted
about this service as it develops.
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