The IAIMS--an essential infrastructure for increasing the competitiveness of health care practices.

The eighth annual workshop of the IAIMS Consortium was devoted to exploring how information technology might provide the tools to allow health care practices to compete in the new health care environment while maintaining independence. The options that were discussed included: optimizing care of the patient in the local setting; reducing practice overhead by improving efficiency and effectiveness; and finding innovative strategies for providing health care and new products.

ACOGQUEST: the model phase of the IAIMS project of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

In 1990, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) became the first national organization to receive a model phase Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAIMS) grant from the National Library of Medicine. The goal of the ACOG model phase project is to develop and test a prototype for an integrated system that will meet the needs of ACOG and NAACOG members in patient care, research, education, and administrative information. The model phase goal will be accomplished primarily through ACOGQUEST, an integrated approach to providing accurate, current, quality-filtered information to ACOG and NAACOG members in a variety of formats. Another method of information dissemination now being tested is a heuristic-based patient management database, which will include a concise, interactive display of ACOG-reviewed information that can be incorporated into patient records.

The IAIMS project of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: using information technology to improve the health care of women.

The mission of the ACOG IAIMS project is to identify the core of knowledge necessary for the practice of obstetrics and gynecology, structure it and put it in electronic form, integrate it into a national ob-gyn information network, prepare ACOG members to use it, and disseminate this core of knowledge to members in appropriate forms. This mission will be accomplished through four project objectives: educational programs on computers and information use; definition of a prototype ob-gyn knowledge base; automated access to ACOG and NAACOG membership services; and integration of ACOG IAIMS activities with other organizations. The ACOG IAIMS model phase project is a model for the role of a national specialty society in meeting the information needs of its members and for the integration of national specialty IAIMS programs with locally-developed programs.