A regional Medical Information Sharing System at a Medical Association Hospital Using Personal Handyphone System Data Communication

Abstract

 Munakata District with a population of 150,000 constitutes the secondary medical region with Munakata Medical Association Hospital as its core medical institution. The hospital is leading the way with its liaison system for electronic medical records.

 The following project system has been established:

1) It has been introduced to handle administrative duties and records of examinations and treatment at the hospital, as well as to enable it to provide digitalized information.

2) A system where by clinics can provide information using electronic medical records

3) A system where by information can be obtained from web sites

The mobile phone data communication system is not connected to the Internet.

 A validity experiment was carried out from December 2001 to February 2002. 90% of the patients surveyed judged it to be convenient while one out of 22 (4.5%) felt anxiety about using the system. They also stated that communication by Personal Handyphone System did not feel unnecessarily slow. The system is easy to install and provides greater flexibility for users over a wider area. Thus, it has proven to be a useful tool for information communication in regional medical care.