Construction and maintenance efficiencies

• It is modular
  Health topics (like breast cancer or coronary artery disease) are modularized. They are divided into 16 standardized modules like genetics, pathology, diagnostics, treatment and so on, which broadly match the natural divisions of the research literature.
• It is completely updated on a two week cycle
  On a two-week cycle, the latest research, screened from all the major medical, surgical and other health professional journals is incorporated into the relevant modular areas. Thus the whole topic area is continuously updated by a minimal reconstruction of just the relevant modular components.
• It is a multi-specialty text
  The WisDoc system performs all of the multiple medical, surgical and related text collating and journal updating for the professional, combining it into a single formatted text. A single click provides the professional with everything he/she needs to be absolutely at the forefront of any field.
• Community text maps exactly on professional text on the same time scale
  WisDoc is a tightly coupled professional and community health information system. An identical topic and module system is used for the community version. This is a one to one translation, module by module, of the professional information into high school level language. The translation is provided by doctors and communications specialists and continuously updated from the professional database on the same time scale as the professional update from the research. Additional models, diagrams and analogies are provided to support the text making it particularly user friendly.
• WisDoc is the first professional/community common resource
  A community user can access the 'lay' version of the complete up to the minute professional text. The system not only solves the information search problem for professionals and the community, but very importantly it provides for the first time a common resource.
• WisDoc reinforces the doctor/patient relationship
  The community health information site is however intended to provide renewed support for quality doctor-patient relationships by providing a common reference because of the coupled design.
• WisDoc - the de facto net standard for health information
  No existing health information service approaches these specifications. WisDoc will redefine the whole field of health information and establish the standard for a coupled doctor/patient information resource.
• A professional user would have available two services:
  
  • An inter-specialty, medical/surgical text that is within four weeks of the publication research edge. It will be a primary specialist text and a complete update resource all in a single text.
  • A research data base that includes:
    • For each domain (e.g. breast cancer) the most important research and review articles ~ (50 - 300) over the last twelve months, in abstract and full text format, selected and maintained by a field specialist up to date to within two weeks of the original research publication date.
    • One-page guides to the idiosyncrasies of researching each health topic written by field specialists.
• A community user:
  A community user will be able to call up a broad topic such as Breast Cancer and read a complete user-friendly account of the subject, in high school level language complete with models, diagrams, analogies etc.
  
  The distinguishing features of this account will be:
  • It is a 'one to one modular translation' by doctors and communications experts of a complete up to the minute specialist level account of the topic.
  • It will be current to within six weeks of the publication research edge.
  
  A table summarizing the information framework for WisDoc forms appendix A.
  
  Putting WisDoc Together
  
  With the health information problem laid bare, the WisDoc solution above appears ideal but at first sight it looks dauntingly complex. The WisDoc group has devised a route through the complexity. Patents are pending on the design principles.
  
  Here in broad outline is the plan.
  
  Selection of diseases covered
  
  Major health problems have a very skewed distribution. Of about 500 total, just 20 domains - the major cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV and asthma - would cover some 90% of the disease burden in the developed world. It is no coincidence that this group of disorders covers the bulk of the fast paced research which WisDoc uniquely picks up.
  
  Careful selection means that building the core of an information utility is then a quite manageable task. Because it is an 'everything you want to know in one place, up to the minute, matching professional and community system,' it immediately fulfills the requirements of the bulk of net users both doctors and patients.
  
  Multi-faceted approach to the diseases
  
  With the increasing sophistication of medicine, many diseases are now distributed over a clinical spectrum much broader than the traditional specialist categories. In particular medicine and surgery are closely intertwined in the treatment of many disorders. Preventive and screening approaches are now also well-developed areas of clinical practice and primary care has a defining contribution. WisDoc approaches each topic from these multiple perspectives.
  
  Technical level of the information
  
  A consequence of the increasing interconnectedness of clinical information is that the required level of understanding of both obviously related and apparently disparate fields of medicine has risen significantly. WisDoc is therefore pitched at the inter-specialty level. This is the level at which a specialist could provide a complete explanation of the essence of a topic area to a specialist in another area, an advanced medical or surgical trainee or to an experienced primary care practitioner. It is the highest common level of communication between doctors and is just one step removed from the detail of the specialty.
  
  Modular topic components
  
  The next feature is the standardized modularizing system, which structures all topics on a similar matrix.
  
  Each topic is divided into a standardized set of components. These are individually quite standard and recognizable to any clinician. They include Genetics, Epidemiology, Pathology, Diagnostics, etc., a total of about 16 modular components.
  
  This enables an extremely efficient continuous update system both for matching and adding new research data to the professional text and for translating the professional text to the community text.
  
  The relation between significance of information and quality of scientific support.
  
  This is one of the core defining features of WisDoc
  
  Information in the various topic components changes at quite different rates. The fastest changing areas are usually diagnostics and treatment and they obviously require the maximum input from solidly established resources - multi center trials, pooled trials, Cochrane reviews, evaluation committees etc.
  
  Unfortunately the lead-time for high quality scientific support can be quite long - six months would be extremely fast but it may run to ten years and more. As a consequence a very important role for the specialist reviewer is to make best judgement calls and recommendations based on more limited data in critical fast changing areas. For example, a small study showing modest success for a new treatment of an otherwise lethal disease is very important.