| Abstract |
INTRODUCTION: Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) for ICUs collect, present and store
clinical data. Various intentions make analysis of those digitally stored data desirable, such as quality
control or scientific purposes. The aim of the Intensive Care Data Evaluation project (ICDEV), was to
provide a database tool for the analysis of data recorded at various ICUs at the University Clinics of
Vienna. SETTINGS: General Hospital of Vienna, with two different PDMSs used: CareVue 9000
(Hewlett Packard, Andover, USA) at two ICUs (one medical ICU and one neonatal ICU) and PICIS
Chart+ (PICIS, Paris, France) at one Cardiothoracic ICU. CONCEPT AND METHODS: Clinically
oriented analysis of the data collected in a PDMS at an ICU was the beginning of the development. After
defining the database structure we established a client-server based database system under Microsoft
Windows NI and developed a user friendly data quering application using Microsoft Visual C++ and
Visual Basic; RESULTS: ICDEV was successfully installed at three different ICUs, adjustment to the
different PDMS configurations were done within a few days. The database structure developed by us
enables a powerful query concept representing an 'EXPERT QUESTION COMPILER' which may help
to answer almost any clinical questions. Several program modules facilitate queries at the patient, group
and unit level. Results from ICDEV-queries are automatically transferred to Microsoft Excel for display
(in form of configurable tables and graphs) and further processing. CONCLUSIONS: The ICDEV
concept is configurable for adjustment to different intensive care information systems and can be used to
support computerized quality control. However, as long as there exists no sufficient artifact recognition or
data validation software for automatically recorded patient data, the reliability of these data and their
usage for computer assisted quality control remain unclear and should be further studied. |