Cooperative medical decision making and learning by the sharing of web-based electronic notebooks and logs

The Stanford Health Information Network for Education (SHINE) integrates online bibliographic systems, drug databases, guideline texts, textbooks, journals, medical images, digital videos, and knowledge-based systems formerly accessible individually through the Z39.50 protocol, SQL language, HTTP protocol and full-text search engines. Using a mediator-and-wrapper-based approach, SHINE is able to integrate with the patient´s electronic medical record (EMR) system to support just-in-time medical information for medical decision making and education. We developed web-based electronic notebook and log recording systems. By organizing, reviewing, and sharing the log records, users can share and manage their learning experience. The electronic notebook works as a tool for inter-person communication, personal note keeping, group file sharing, and EMR system reference linking. We also discuss SHINE´s system infrastructure, which was designed to support the information sharing and linking