Methods Inf Med 1991; 30(01): 53-64 DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634811
Original Articles
Schattauer GmbH
A Local Area Network for Medical Research; Planning, Realization and Experience[*]
R. Schosser
1
Department of Experimental Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, FRG
,
C. Weiss
1
Department of Experimental Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, FRG
,
K. Messmer
1
Department of Experimental Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, FRG
› Author AffiliationsWe gratefully acknowledge the contributions of H. J. Holzforster, W. Gross and Dr. H. Zeintl, Department of Experimental Surgery, who helped to plan and realize our LAN. H. J. Holzförster and W. Gross did most of the programming work for the LO-GIN-procedure. Dr. H. Zeintl assisted to integrate the Micro VAX as LAN server. The LAN would not be operational today without the advice and friendly cooperation of M. Hebgen, Vice Director of the University Computer Service Center (URZ), and K. Staab, Director of the Hospital Computer Service Center (KRZ). We are also obliged to L. Binding (URZ) and H. J. Holzförster (KRZ) who made the connections to the IBM and Siemens mainframes operational. We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of the colleagues participating in the national inquiry and particularly the enthusiastic cooperation of all members of the “For-schungsschwerpunkt 16.2”. Last but not least, we are indebted to the Board of Directors of the “Sonder-forschungsbereich 320”, in particular to Prof. W. Kiibler and Prof. H. Seller, for additional financial support.
This report focusses on the planning and realization of an interdisciplinary local area network (LAN) for medical research at the University of Heidelberg. After a detailed requirements analysis, several networks were evaluated by means of a test installation, and a cost-performance analysis was carried out. At present, the LAN connects 45 (IBM-compatible) PCs, several heterogeneous mainframes (IBM, DEC and Siemens) and provides access to the public X.25 network and to wide-area networks for research (EARN, BITNET). The network supports application software that is frequently needed in medical research (word processing, statistics, graphics, literature databases and services, etc.). Compliance with existing “official” (e.g., IEEE 802.3) and “de facto” standards (e.g., PostScript) was considered to be extremely important for the selection of both hardware and software. Customized programs were developed to improve access control, user interface and on-line help. Wide acceptance of the LAN was achieved through extensive education and maintenance facilities, e.g., teaching courses, customized manuals and a hotline service. Since requirements of clinical routine differ substantially from medical research needs, two separate networks (with a gateway in between) are proposed as a solution to optimally satisfy the users’ demands.
Key-Words
Local Area Networks -
Requirements Analysis -
Cost-Performance Analysis -
User Training -
User Acceptance
* This project was funded during 1985-89 by the Federal Government of Baden-Wiirttem-berg (Landes-Forschungsschwerpunkt 16.2)
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