Health Evaluation through Logical Programming (HELP)

From Clinfowiki
Revision as of 19:49, 20 January 2009 by DeanSittg (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Health Evaluation through Logical Processing (HELP) was designed by Gardner, Pryor, and Warner [Gardner RM 1999]. The original system was developed at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has been active since 1967. The parent organization is now known at Intermountain Health Care (IHC). The original focus of the system was better understanding of how circulation is controlled. It was used in the cardiac cath lab, and then extended into the operating room and ICU. Eventually it became a hospital wide system, and then at 9 system hospitals.

The real addition of this system was using the computer to aid decision-making, such as recognition of cardiac tamponade, by analysis of patient results. One trial suggested the the program had a 94% success rate of chosing an appropriate antibiotic regimen compared to a 77% success rate for physicians [Desouza KC 2002]. It also supports selection of appropriate antibiotics in case of infectitious diseases. Clinical decision support also predicts and prevents many adverse drug events (ADE's).

Originally, physicians were only "data reviewers," not "data enterers." Also, the system did not allow exchange of records between facilities. That changed with the introduction of the Longitudinal patient Data Repository (LDR) starting in the late 1990s.


References

Gardner RM, Pryor TA, Warner HR. The HELP hospital information system: update 1998. International Journal of Medical Informatics 54(1999)169-182.


Desouza KC. Managing Knowledge with Artificial Intelligence. Westport, CT. 2002. Greenwood Publishing Group. P. 84. 17 Jan 2009. <http://books.google.com/books?id=H_Ni29j6n4IC&printsec=copyright&dq=health+evaluation+through+logical+processing#PPR4,M1>.