Design Studies Suggested by an Abstract Model for a Medical Information System

Abstract We have developed a formal model of a database system that is unusual in that it has the ability to represent information about its own structure and to insure semantic consistency. The model distinguishes general laws from instances of events and objects, but many of its mechanisms serve both categories of information. The model forms a substrate upon which an information structure appropriate to neonatology is being developed. Some example queries are shown and a design study for an associative memory suggested by the model is described briefly.