Data
Facts and figures concerning things such as peoples, objects or events is called data. e.g. students record attribute.

Information
Information is the process form of data and presented in a suitable form for human interaction.

Database
Database is a shared collection of logically related data design to meet the information needs of multiple user in an organization.

I.R.M ( Information Resource Management )
I.R.M is a major resource and manage using some basic principles, that a use to manage assets such as an employee records, stock information and equipment and financial resources.

1) The basic principles are an organization which is compared of different resources that flow into the organization from its environment and then return to its environment.
2) There are two types of resources a. Physical Resources i.e. Personal, Machine, Material, Finance b. Conceptual Resources i.e. Data and Information
3) As scale of organization increases, it is more difficult to manage physical resources by observation thus we are force to rely on conceptual resources.
4) The same principles applied to manage conceptual resources.
5) Management of conceptual resources required security measures design to protect the resources from destruction and misuse, quality, insurances and removal producers ( Deletion of information if no longer needed )
6) Management of data and information can be achieved only through organizational commitment no individuals.

Types of Database

Several strategies / Plans are available for deploying an using database information. The two basic types are

i) Centralization Database
ii) Distribution Database
i) Centralization Database
In centralization database all data are located at a single site users at remote sites may generally access the database using communication facilities. It provides greater control over accessing and updating than a distribution database but the failure of central site will cause a greater damage. It has two types i) Personal Computer Database ii) Central Computer Database

Personal Computer Database
Personal computer database is a single user environment, to create, updates, delete and maintain the database to produce the reports for decisions e.g. students records, stock management.
Central Computer Database
In central database environment most applications are stored in central computer. The users at remote location can access database through communication medium. It often involves large volume of data and large no. of users to access then with several thousands transactions per second e.g. air line reservation system, express delivery companies and client server database. It is design for the distribution of work on network in which many client may share services of a single server.

Server
It is a software application that provides services ( such as D.B.M.S ) to Requesting client
Client
A software application that request services from one or more servers.

The main objective of client / server architecture is to allow client application to access server manage data. The user interface and logic of the business application are process on the client while database processing is performed on the database servers.

ii) Distributive Database
Many organizations spread over various locations in such cases centralize database are often impractical and uneconomical. A distributive database is a single logical database that spread physically across computers in multiple locations
Homogenous Database
The term homogenous means that the database technology is same at each of location and data at various locations are also compatible e.g. o/s are same, data models are same ( R.D.B.M.S ) preferred, data are common definitions and formats.
Hitrogenous Database
Database evolves over a period of time without careful guidance and planning i.e. different computers, different o/s, different data definitions and format.

Database Approach
It emphasize the integration and sharing of data across the organizations.

Centralization
It provides greater control over resources to manage and observe as compared to individual applications

Consistency and No Duplication:
Data is store on different applications in non database installation so it is recommended. In result duplication of data may occur if a value changes it is difficult to look after all required changes. Using different applications data formats may also be different.

So a database design that is almost exact will result.
i) All data in same format. Thus compatible.
ii) No duplication occurs.



Components of database environment

It is the most fundamental part of D.B.M.S. All file creation, record insertion, deletion and updating are controlled by a file manager.

CASE Tools : (Computer Aided Software Engineering tools)
Automated tools used to design application and programs. (Designer 2.2)

Repository :
Centralized knowledge containing all data definitions, screens and report formats and definition of other organization and system.

Database :
Database is a shared collection of logically related data designed to meet the information needs of multiple users in an organization.

Application programs :
Computer programs that are used to create and maintain database and provide information to user.

DBA : (Database administrator)
The person who controls the flow of information and organizes the inputs and outputs. User interface :
Languages, menus & other facilities by which user interacts with various system components.

System developers :
Persons such as system analyst and programmers who design new programs for the organizations are called system developers.

End users :
Persons throughout the organization who add, delete and update data and receive information are called end users.


Centralized Database and General Person Index Management:

Key Benefits:
All clients share in the continual updating of Patient Demographics and Insurance Information. There is a single point of contact for interfacing the Centralized Data structure with "foreign" systems, i.e. hospital, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, insurance carrier, third party administrator information systems..

Capabilities
The common database is shared by all Epic applications. This provides the following capabilities:

Complete integration of all applications:
Any appropriate part of a database's data structure is available to any application. This is in contrast to "interfaced" applications that each have their own databases with unique data structures requiring an interface to enable the movement of elements of data between the different applications.

General Person Index:
The General Person/Patient Index (GPI) allows for individualized patient identification systems to be integrated and mapped to a unique patient identifier that itself can support multiple aliases. Example: someone may have a different "medical record number" in each practice, hospital, insurance carrier, third-party-administrator, etc. and have one or more alias names. The GPI can resolve this problem. The GPI is already integrated into each Epic application.