In recent posts I described Infobuttons and I explained how clinical decision support could be offered through web services. If we combine these ideas, we can imagine how Infobutton results could be retrieved using web services.

Here is an illustration of a problem list in an electronic medical record (EMR) system. Beneath the problem list is an area where Infobutton results might appear. Next to each problem is an Infobutton link:

Clicking on the Infobutton link next to Hypertension would cause Infobutton results for Hypertension to be retrieved via a web service and displayed in the Infobutton results area, as in:

Similarly, clicking on the Infobutton link next to Hyperlipidemia would cause Infobutton results for Hyperlipidemia to be retrieved and displayed, as in:

Behind the scenes, the EMR would have invoked a Representational State Transfer (REST) web service to retrieve the Infobutton results. For example, the call to the web service might have involved a URL request and an XML response.

The request would contain, at a minimum, either the textual description of the problem, the ICD-9-CM code, or both. The request could also contain additional patient parameters, such as age and gender, as well as other context parameters, such as whether the patient is currently being seen in an outpatient clinic, the hospital or the emergency department. These additional parameters could be used to tailor the Infobutton results for this particular patient.

The response would contain search results in XML. According to the latest Health Level Seven (HL7) ballot on how to implement Infobuttons as web services, the XML response would be in the Atom format, which is a standard content syndication format maintained by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

This approach is a simple way to bring relevant clinical decision support content into the clinician’s workflow.