Experiences in deployment of a Web-based CIS for referring physicians

Improving the timeliness and efficiency of information exchange between the hospital and clinicians in the health care community is an area of active interest at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Providing computer-based access to referring physicians who are not formally affiliated with the hospital is a particular challenge, since these offices are not connected to the hospital network and lack the standard hospital workstation hardware and software. Installing clients for the hospital's clinical applications at these sites has been a difficult and costly proposition. The emergence of Web technology yields an alternative method for developing clinical applications for this remote, diverse user population. We present our experiences during the first six months of deployment of a Web-based clinical information system designed for use by referring physicians.