System Overview

Introduction

This document provides a high-level overview of the PrimeCare™ Patient Management System, Version Nine (V9). System design considerations and detailed documentation are detailed in other documents.

Version Nine of the PrimeCare™ Patient Management System is a complete, ground-up redesign and re-write of the entire system. The overall system architecture has been changed; the supporting data base structures have been enhanced; the client interface has been redesigned to more accurately reflect the operational needs of the end-users, and user installation has been greatly simplified.

• The overall system architecture has been switched from a two-tier client-server application to a three-tier client-provider-RDBMS application, designed for geographically separated tiers. The client portion of the V9 system is designed to connect with the middle tier (provider tier) via internet communications. The provider and data base tiers are designed to support multiple, distinct clients simultaneously. The client application has been designed to allow easy internalization and localization.

• Supporting data bases have been redesigned to remove unnecessary redundancies, including a major redesign of the encounter questionnaire. Provision has been added for support of an unlimited number of alternative languages.

The PrimeCare™ Patient Management System, Version Nine continues to be a Windows application. Although it will run on Windows NT, Windows 98, or Windows ME, it is best run on Windows 2000, Windows 2003, or Windows XP.

The Three-Tier Architecture

The three-tier architecture of the The PrimeCare™ Patient Management System, Version Nine provides many advantages, including easy client installation; reduced on-site support requirements; enhanced data security; and natural scalability. Read more.

Operational Concept

As a three-tier application, the PrimeCare™ Patient Management System, Version Nine, requires only that the client tier application be installed at the end-user location. This system architecture greatly simplifies both user installation and system maintenance. Although the user tier uses the internet to communicate with the provider and data base tiers, it is not a browser-based application, thereby eliminating the many compatibility and security issues involved in supporting multiple browser configurations. The V9 client is a specially written front-end application, designed to be downloaded by the client via a web connection, and then installed at the client's location using normal Windows installation procedures.

After the V9 client application has been installed, when it is first run, it will automatically contact the server tier (remotely hosted by PrimeCare™ Systems, Inc.) and initiate the user registration process. Most of the registration process will be completed silently and automatically.

Once the user has completed registration, he may add additional terminals at any time simply by installing the client program on as many terminals as desired. A permanent, system-assigned user-id is used to identify all terminal associated with a specific client, and to ensure that data associated with one client is never made available to another client.