| Abstract | We recently described an IBM 370-based system for recording, reporting and researching data on infants admitted to newborn intensive care units. Automatic computer production of admission/discharge documents and of letters to physicians and agencies accounted for an 80% reduction in physician and nursing admission/discharge paperwork, a 12-fold increase in completeness of medical data, and a 96% reduction in time from patient discharge to receipt of patient care information within the medical community. The system was limited to NICU applications and required a multimillion dollar computer facility, extensive technical personnel, and the use of several specialized programming language. The relative inaccessibility of such computing resources in most medical departments, and specific requests from medical staff for adding direct entry of diagnoses onto the computer prompted the re-implementation of the system on a microcomputer platform. A TERAK 8510 microcomputer system (LSI-11 processor), video display terminal, standard keyboard, dual 8" single-density floppy diskette drives, and a Xerox Diablo 1620 printer comprise the system. The programs (Practice, Input/Update, Printout, Copy, and Query) are written in a clinical application language designed as part of this project, and each program resides on a separate diskette. Patient information is recorded on active or archive patient file diskettes which accommodate up to 120 discrete patient records. The RT-11 operating system provides the underlying structure and system capabilities. |