Schema-driven time-oriented record system on a minicomputer

✍ Scribed by Edwin B. Cox; Wilma E. Stanley

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 737 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4809
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-4809(79)90035-1

✦ Synopsis

Data management problems in clinical medicine frequently require organization and analysis of data over the dimension of time, particularly in chronic disease such as cancer. Manual methods share the disadvantages of being cumbersome to modify and allowing only casual subjective interpretation. We have developed a schema-driven, time-oriented record for oncology (TORO) on a minicomputer for storage, retrieval, and analysis of cancer patient data. This system features interactive data entry and editing, simple schema development, and tabular and graphical outputs of analyzed and retrieved data in formats the physician uses in his manual records. A series of statistical tests, most importantly those relevant to response and survival analysis, operate directly on TORO patient files in response to interactive requests from a medical investigator. TORO combines the ability to manage individual patient data for clinical purposes with the ability to perform rapid cross-patient analyses for research purposes. Furthermore, space utilization is quite efficient and transportability of the system has been demonstrated.