This research project will examine key issues (conceptual, technical, legal, economical, and ethical) in the digitization and electronic network communication of two main types of records in the health fields (clinical and research documentation).* Research will be conducted over a two-year period: July 1995 will be spent researching and developing models for digitizing clinical and laboratory records. From August 1995 to June 1996 the models will be tested, both at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Michigan. We plan to spend July 1996 at the University of Michigan, refining the models and preparing an article.
The project's research protocol consists of two case studies that are based upon archival work in progress at the Medical Archives of Johns Hopkins and digitization work in progress at the University of Michigan Historical Center for the Health Sciences. The case studies include the following:
1. designing an electronic model for reference and research use of historical clinical information;
2. designing an electronic model for reference and research use of historical scientific data.
By selecting case studies that involve archival and digitization research already underway, we intend to build upon an existing knowledge base. Through pooling complementary professional skills and sharing the archival and technical resources from our respective institutions, we hope to produce usable models that will have generalizable results for archival programs in the health fields.
* The strategic plan for the archival program at Johns Hopkins, "Meeting the Archival Challenges of the Information Age in the Health Fields" (McCall 1992), provides a major impetus for this proposal.
Return to project introduction page
Return to the Archives homepage