A-Z Glossary

Here is a list of key terms used in the AFH Program. The list is continuously expanded and updated. 

Access Control
Data protection system in which measures and procedures are set in place to manage access to sensitive data and protect it from unauthorized persons.

Clinical Path
A clinical path is a key tool for managing treatment processes. It is a network of multidisciplinary diagnostic treatment measures founded on evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, which takes patient expectations, quality and cost-effectiveness into consideration and creates process-related lists of all services and resources used during a patient’s hospital stay from admission to discharge.

Confidentiality
The relationship between patient and physician is based on the confidentiality of the personal information involved. This means that all information and data collected and created during treatment are covered by particularly strict protection laws which are enforced by an array of specific mechanisms.

Cost Covering Principle
Principle of financing that allows hospitals to apply to the financing bodies of the healthcare system to claim reimbursement of all costs arising from the provision of their services.
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.218)

Dashboard
A dashboard is an electronic “blackboard” displaying all clinical processes currently in progress, including graphic displays of room occupancy, available equipment and its location, and treatment progress.

Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG)
Diagnosis Related Groups refers to a patient classification system for case-based flat fee payment systems (DRG-based system). Patient classification systems assign patients to clinically defined groups with similar treatment costs. 
The system enables clinics and hospitals to group similar cases into treatment groups which are as precisely defined and homogeneous as possible.  
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.215)

Disease Management
Disease Management is the process of orienting the treatment process to the pattern of the disease, integrating preventive, curative and rehabilitation measures. A key precondition for implementation of disease management-based approaches is the ongoing monitoring of medical outcomes. For this reason, guidelines and standards of medical care are particularly important. Medical results must be evaluated using health-economic evaluation methods in order to serve as a basis for economic management recommendations.  .
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.215)

eHIP
eHealth Interoperability Platform, or eHIP, is a joint development by Microsoft, Intel and Asklepios. Together with the Microsoft BizTalk server, it serves as the connection and hub of data exchange between physicians in practices or clinics and other healthcare service providers.  The Asklepios physicians’ portal is based on the eHealth Interoperability Platform.

EKG Telematics
In case of emergency, EKG Telematics enables EKG results to be transmitted via mobile devices from the on-site emergency service directly to the hospital emergency room. The system also enables second opinions to be requested.

Electronic Health Card (Elektronische Gesundheitskarte)
The electronic health card is a development which is set to take over from the present system of health insurance cards. It will significantly facilitate the organization of treatment by enabling the patient data stored on the card to be transferred rapidly between health insurance companies, physicians, hospitals and pharmacies, resulting in more rapid and more efficient treatment of patients.

Electronic Medical Record
Electronic medical records (EMR) are centralized digital files of patients’ medical history, listing all illnesses, results and treatments in electronic form on a data storage medium for rapid access by all healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s treatment.

Hospital Information System (HIS)
A hospital information system is the IT-based information processing platform within a hospital, on which all medical and administrative processes are managed.

Image Diagnostics
Image diagnostics is a method of diagnosis based on imaging techniques such as X-rays, MRT, sonography, angiography and other methods, some contrast-enhanced.  The images, today generally in digital form, must meet high standards of quality.

Informational Self-Determination
Informational self-determination denotes the right of individuals to free and personal control over their personal information. It includes the individual’s absolute right to decide over disclosure of the information to third parties, and is thus part of the general right to privacy of individuals.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is the term used to describe the process of collecting, archiving and editing all data and information necessary for the operation of an organization (e.g. a hospital).

Managed Care
Managed Care is a wide-ranging term with many definitions. In terms of organizational economics, Managed Care is a form of contractual obligation between individual health insurance providers and selected service providers (selective contracting) in which the health insurance provider may influence the service provider (management aspect). Contractual relations may allow for the implementation of a variety of managed care tools related to payment, quality control and liability issues. From an organizational point of view, disease management approaches are primarily suitable for the application of managed care.
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.218)

Media Discontinuity
Media discontinuity, or integration gap, is a change in the medium used to store data during an information process (e.g. printing out a digital file), which breaks a consistent information chain and may result in additional costs and delays.  

Medical Interconnect Solution
HP and Microsoft are intensifying their cooperation over IT solutions for hospitals and clinics, with the aim of integrating various information pools such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System), HIS (Hospital Information System), LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System),  and data from medical equipment. An initial solution offered by the HP Digital Hospital Portfolio is HP Medical Interconnect. Its standard-based interfaces form part of the HP Digital Hospital Portfolio and are based on the Microsoft Connected Healthcare Framework. Available immediately, HP Medical Interconnect paves the way for hospitals to gradually move towards fully integrated digital infrastructures – the goal of the „Digital Hospital“.
In the development of Medical Interconnect, HP acts as systems integrator with responsibility for project management and system architecture. Integration of hospital applications and medical equipment utilizes IMATIS middleware by Cardiac. The solution is based on Microsoft Biztalk Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server.

Ontology Mapping
Ontology mapping is a method of mapping knowledge from different information sources to create a common basis. The source knowledge is available as a network of logically interrelated information. Ontology mapping is a key basic element in “semantic Web“ applications (expansion of the WWW to include machine-readable services).
As yet, no universal definition of ontology mapping has been established.

PACS
“Picture Archiving and Communication Systems“ (PACS) are used in all medical fields which utilize imaging techniques (radiology, cardiology, nuclear medicine etc.) to process, store and communicate results. 

Private Health Insurance (PHI)
Private insurance companies where full membership is voluntary and only open to patients not covered by SHI compulsory insurance criteria. SHI insurees have the option of supplementing their insurance by adding further entitlements to treatment in the form of additional PHI insurance. Contributions are calculated using the principle of equivalence, and provision of services takes the form of cost reimbursement. 
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S. 220)

Referral
Referral is the process by which a physician transfers, or refers, a patient to another physician (specialist consultant) for further treatment. 

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
RFID is a technology for touch-free identification and localization of objects or persons. The system uses three elements: a transponder (smart tag, chip armband, etc.) on which data can be stored, a reader to visualize the data and a server linkup to enable data to be processed and stored.

Second Opinion
Treating physicians may request a second opinion from another physician or other expert to confirm a result or diagnosis.

SmartCard
A card on which access keys are stored and protected from third-party access by technical means. It serves as authentication to give the holder access to a computer system. The SmartCard system offers higher protection than the classic user name/password combination, since it combines the entry of a PIN (knowledge) with the presentation of the card (physical possession).

Statutory Health Insurance (SHI)
The responsible bodies for the SHI are the health insurance funds, as self-governing public-sector bodies. SHI contributions are made on the basis of the solidarity principle. SHI covers all risks arising in the event of illness in the form of treatment costs and loss of earnings. Benefits are issued in the form of benefits in kind. Immediate relatives of insurees are co-insured by the SHI. Around 90% of the population of Germany belong to an SHI organization. The SHI system provides for compulsory insurance and entitlement to insurance. Compulsory insurance applies to all people whose earnings do not exceed a certain limit or who meet specific criteria. Insurance entitlement applies to a highly restricted category of persons.
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.217f.)

Telematics
Telematics (telecommunications and informatics) denotes the interconnection of multiple IT systems, enabling, say, digital data (e.g. results, X-rays etc.) to be exchanged across long physical distances via a telecommunications system/network. 

Telemedicine
Telemedicine, also known as health telematics, denotes diagnosis and therapy in separate geographical locations. In this process, data is exchanged between geographically widely separated treating physicians using telecommunications systems and networks.

Telepathology
Telepathology is a field of telemedicine (see Telemedicine) involving interpretation of digitalized pathological results (e.g. microscopic examinations of cells etc.).

Teleradiology
Teleradiology is a field of telemedicine (see Telemedicine) involving interpretation of digitally transmitted radiological results (e.g. X-rays).

Uniform Value Scale (UVS)
The Uniform Value Scale (UVS) is a method of relative evaluation of medical services for reimbursement by assigning points to the individual services. It is drawn up by an assessment committee and is a constituent element of the general federal agreements between the German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung) and the national confederations of regional associations of statutory health insurance funds. A point does not have a fixed value, but varies in line with the scope of services and the budget.  
(Source: Oberender, P./Hebborn, A.: Wachstumsmarkt Gesundheit, UTB Wissenschaft, Stuttgart 2002, S.215)

Workflow
Workflow is the IT-supported sequence of semi-automated processing and saving steps which forms the basis of processes in both business and medical care.