Information systems for medical imaging labs: the experience of the CNR Clinical Physiology Institute

In the late 1990s the CNR Clinical Physiology Institute was entrusted with the "SPERIGEST" project, granted by the Italian Health Ministry. Among the technical challenges of the project, the following issues were faced: 1) the definition of a system architecture able to conjugate a centric view, as required by data integration needs, with flexibility and modularity in order to satisfy the different healthcare environments; 2) the creation of local information systems devoted to the management of each single laboratory activity; 3) the creation of a suitable network to exchange information both inside and outside the hospital; 4) the overcoming of safety and security issues in the treatment of healthcare data; 5) the data processing for extracting knowledge from the archived data and for supporting the diagnostic/treatment process; 6) the education of healthcare personnel; 7) the adoption of standards for both storage and distribution of data. An hospital information system was developed according to a three layers mode