A modular self-describing clinical databank system.

Abstract Databanks containing detailed medical information have been established for specific divisions of the Stanford Medical Center using a table-driven computer system designed to record and analyze medical record data. The databank developed in the Division of Immunology over the past three years includes data from over 5500 patient visits. Nine months of experience in several other specialities has demonstrated the usefulness and generality of the approach. The system offers administrative procedures to generate patient summaries and back up manual records, create graphical flowcharts, and print lists of selected patients. As an educational and research tool, the system provides “information services,” including tabulations, graphical illustrations, and statistical analyses of medical variables. These services support patient care decisions by analysis of stored clinical experience. By increasing the information available to practicing physicians, medical speciality databanks may reinforce clinical practice sufficiently to allow modular expansion into a hospital network.