Capgemini releases white paper with practical guidance for Health IT executives

Healthcare providers have begun to develop and implement clinical information networks designed to support electronic health records (EHRs) for every patient within the next decade. As a portion of this activity, they must be sure that those records can be shared easily with clinical peers in their local or regional area, in the state and eventually on a national basis.
   
Capgemini released a white paper that addresses the key technology and architectural challenges health IT experts must consider as they develop EHRs:  scalability, reliability, recoverability, interchangeable vocabularies, and integration.
   
One consideration explored in the white paper involves ensuring that the underlying system architecture is 'scalable' -- large enough to accommodate large numbers of simultaneous inquiries while maintaining speed to enable response in a timely manner during peak usage periods. At present, most vendors can support a maximum of about 5,000 simultaneous logons.  A related hurdle: accurately determining how much capacity will be needed to accommodate inbound messages (e.g., unsolicited updates to a data base from clinicians, labs or other authorized caregivers).