Institute for Medical Knowledge Implementation (IMKI) Demonstrates the Wellogic Catalyst Rule-Authoring Tool at HIMSS 2003

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Medical Knowledge Implementation (IMKI) will hold two training sessions for its rule-authoring tool at HIMSS 2003 (Feb. 9-13, http://www.himss.org/). The sessions will be held at the IMKI station in Wellogic's booth (#1337) in the main exhibition hall.

The training sessions are offered at two times: -- Monday, February 10 at 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. (Wellogic Booth #1337) -- Wednesday, February 12 at 2:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Wellogic Booth #1337)

The Web-based authoring software, developed by Wellogic in collaboration with IMKI's consortium of industry leaders, allows clinicians without programming expertise to write clinical decision support rules. Authors use the application to define clinical populations and assign action steps to patients who meet the definitions. The authoring tool translates these algorithms into a computer language that can be exported into the rules execution engine of any information system. Pilot tests with Siemens and Eclipsys have demonstrated that rules created with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) using this application can be processed in both vendors' engines.

The authoring tool is one component of Wellogic's Catalyst technology. Catalyst is a clinical knowledge platform that helps reduce medical errors by enabling clinical decision support at the point of care, through pro-active reviews of all available patient information. Catalyst provides features ranging from nomenclature-driven rules authoring and management to rules-driven application workflows and Web questionnaires.

Rules written with the Catalyst Authoring Tool are displayed in IMKI's Public Library-a searchable, Web-based clearinghouse of high-quality rules that clinical quality leaders can download "as-is" or easily modify to meet the needs of their delivery systems. Rules are contributed by specialty societies, such as the ADA, and individual authors.

The two training sessions at HIMSS are designed for members of the quality improvement, informatics, vendor, and academic communities who wish to learn more about the authoring tool. The sessions will provide users with the necessary tools to create their own clinical decision support rules. All attendees will receive a username and password so they can access and use the tool after the conference. To date, over 100 individuals have been trained to use the authoring software.

Interested parties who cannot attend these sessions can stop by IMKI's demo station in Wellogic's booth during exhibit hours. Additional Web-demonstrations will be offered after HIMSS (contact IMKI for more information).

About IMKI

The Institute for Medical Knowledge Implementation, established in July 2001, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting public access, expanded scope, and national standardization of computerized clinical quality rules. Its Board of Directors is comprised of senior leadership from major information technology companies, health care delivery systems, medical specialty societies, insurers, academic informatics groups, and representatives of the purchasing community. For more information, visit http://www.imki.org/.

About Wellogic

Wellogic provides advanced healthcare applications, application platforms and development consulting services to clients and partners that include the nation's leading hospitals and healthcare information technology providers. Wellogic solutions enable clinicians to make safer, more effective patient care decisions by securely integrating clinical information across multiple systems; by providing clinical decision support at the point of care; and by being straightforward to implement, use, and maintain.

Wellogic builds its products, and frequently its custom solutions, upon the Wellogic Platform for Healthcare, a suite of open, standards-based, modular applications that provide a front-to-back foundation for clinical information systems. For more information, visit http://www.wellogic.com/.

Wellogic

CONTACT: Kristie Novitski of Wellogic, +1-617-621-9775, or
kristie@wellogic.com; or Naomi Atkins of IMKI, +1-415-836-6775, or
natkins@imki.org

Web site: http://www.wellogic.com/http://www.imki.org/http://www.himss.org/