Multi-User Technology

JonokeMed™ uses an integrated client/server system. This is an advanced method of providing simultaneous access for multiple users, to a central database. Client/server technology provides all of the advantages of other data sharing systems while avoiding their weaknesses, as described below.

There are three types of networked information systems available today. These are largely representative of the evolution of computer technology itself.

Server/Dumb Terminal

This system is the original approach for permitting multiple users simultaneous access to a central database. In this setup there is a powerful central server that performs the processing for the whole system. All modifications, searches, reporting, and checking are performed by the server.

A ‘dumb’ terminal connects to the server via the network. The terminal does nothing but display information and permit the user to interact with the system; it is no more than an interface. Later versions of a server/dumb terminal network have complete personal computers for workstations, but the computer still acts solely as an interface with the system, though you may run other local applications on the workstation.

This variety of system demands a powerful – and expensive – central server, since all processing is executed on the server. This means that if there is a server crash, everyone using the system also crashes. When a crash occurs it is very unlikely that you will have the expertise on-site needed to solve the problem. There is a good chance a technician will need to attend to your site.

Peer-to-Peer

The peer-to-peer systems were the result of the introduction and propagation of the personal computer. Jonoke employed this method from 1987 until 1992.

With this system, a low power, central PC would store all the data, while all the workstations access the information on this server. In these systems the central server essentially acts as a hard drive for all the computers to access data. The server does not need to be especially powerful as it simply provides network access to its data storage. Each workstation makes changes to the central data file, while running all necessary software locally (on that workstation’s hard drive). If one workstation crashes the other workstations usually keep working – unless the shared data file becomes corrupted as a result of the crash.

A peer-to-peer setup results in ever-slower performance when more than two or three workstations are accessing the system at once. For example, if three users perform a search for a patient at the same time, every patient record must be sent from the central server to each of the three workstations. This quickly overloads the network.

Web-Based

When the web-based interface is compared with traditional desktop applications, web-based interfaces simply do not and can not have as rich of an interface. They are also been found to be slower, and require more steps and/or clicks to accomplish similar tasks.

Integrated Client/Server

This method of multi-user service is demonstrably the preferred and most advantageous approach. JonokeMed™ was adapted to this model in 1992.

A client/server setup contributes to greater data integrity. Only the server modifies data. In this way, JonokeMed™ avoids the data corruption and crashes that typical peer-to-peer systems experience. Since the server typically performs little of the program tasks, there is less possibility of a server crash.

JonokeMed™'s integrated client/server architecture makes more efficient use of available network bandwidth. The server computer is an ‘intelligent’ server: instead of sending all the patient records across the network, a workstation sends the server a search request. The server performs the search and sends only the search results back to the workstation. The network is therefore not unnecessarily busy, and can support many workstations connected and working at once.

Another advantage of JonokeMed™'s integrated client/server architecture is that the client workstations are automatically updated whenever a new version of the software is released. With traditional client/server, updates would have to done manually. Thus you have the data integrity and performance benefits of client/server without additional maintenance overhead.

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