A simplified HyperCard data base for patient management in an interventional practice: experience with more than 4000 cases

Tracking of interventional radiology procedures is essential for patients' care, follow-up, and quality management, as well as for fellowship training and accreditation. Computer data-base systems that require time-consuming data entry are difficult to use in a practice that performs 1500 abdominal interventional procedures each year while concurrently doing diagnostic imaging. We proposed that a data base updated with data from existing sources and furnishing information used daily in patient management could be maintained by the radiologists it serves. We developed a data base to track abdominal interventional radiology cases by using the HyperCard application program running on Macintosh personal computers. For each procedure, one card is entered into the Current Cases stack, which prints a daily log including new patients, those with management issues, and pending biopsy results. Cards for inactive patients are automatically compressed and transferred to a second stack for permanent archive. The latter can be queried to identify individual patients, to list complications, and for research. In continuous use for 3 years, the system has logged 4322 procedures in 2394 patients. Ninety percent of data entry is by a secretary. The daily log serves as the focus for the case conference at the close of work, when errors are corrected and specific comments entered. Three independent searches for specific types of procedures have failed to identify excluded cases. Easy data entry and error correction, together with useful information provided daily by the data base, are features of the system that promote its consistent use.