International Medical Information Centre (IMIC)

Introduction

The International Medical Information Center (IMIC) is the central agency for medical information activities in Japan. It collects and disseminates highly sophisticated medical information both to domestic and foreign consumers, ultimately contributing to progress in the medical sciences. The foundation was approved as a medical information center by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 1974 and has provided a valuable service to the medical world..
Retrieval of accurate and information and making it readily available is a key requirement of IMIC and it has rightfully earned high praise as a truly sophisticated information center.

Problem

Due to the growing volume of requests for information, further automation and control was required to manage the flow of information from receipt of request through to the shipment of the documents. Several documents can be required in a order, and a search of large medical databases needs to be automatically controlled with readily available documents put on hold and other documents ordered, from external sources. When all documents are available the order is combined, physically printed (due to copyright restrictions) and then shipped to the customer with interfaces to the accounting systems.

Solution

After a review of competing systems, ActiveModeler/ActiveFlow was chosen to define and control the process flow from receipt of order thorough to the final shipment.

Benefits

• The total information flow is now automated and controlled by ActiveFlow with substantial benefits in manpower requirements
• Higher volumes of business can be handled in an efficient manner.
  Orders are managed in a standard way and have much better audit and traceability
• Reliable and cost-effective solution to the demanding requirements

 

Moving Forward

With this key production workflow completed, IMIC are currently examining other ActiveFlow workflow opportunities to streamline back office functions and benefit from the infrastructure already in place.