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Reference Information Model for Clinical Laboratories. RILA as a Laboratory Management Toolbox. Henk M.J. Goldschmidt, ed. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press, 1998, 261pp., $74.00. ISBN 90-5199-414-1.

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Department of Pathology, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

This book represents an application of data collection and models beginning with a definition of RILA, which stands for Reference Information Model for Clinical Laboratories. Such a representation model (RILA) contains information about the essential processes within the laboratory organization and the connections between these processes, along with the information to be created, shared, altered, and used. This approach takes advantage of the concept that information obtained from a standard information model can be used to effectively design and optimize an organization (such as a clinical laboratory) without the effort, delay, and expense required to generate new information from scratch.

The book focuses on the importance and value of information and the fact that the information must be stored on "open" systems and in highly structured, uniform, and well-defined databases so that the . . . [Full Text of this Article]