Following on from its surgical information system, Medical Systems Ltd, the Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire-based medical software company has launched MicroMed Medical, an information system for hospital physicians. Based on personal computers and running under Digital Research Inc’s Concurrent DOS multi-tasking, multi-user MS-DOS emulator, the system has two functions: to speed up the administrative process of processing patient’s medical records and over time, to build up a database of information for physicians. Professor Rodney Taylor a physician at the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, in Gosport, Hanmpshire, has been working on the development of the project with Medical Systems. The company was set up in 1982 specifically to provide software for hospitals. Taylor is enthusiastic about the medical auditing for which the system was designed. He says that it enables physicians to find out more accurately and more easily the extent to which their diagnoses are working overall, rather than just having a vague mental picture of what is happening and only having indiviual patient’s notes to refer to. Consequently they can see which areas need attention. With the generally conservative nature of the medical profession in mind, the system has been designed to be as idiotproof as possible and is menu-driven, has few options on the screen at any one time and doesn’t trust physicians with a help facility. All operations are single key. The launch of the system is timely. The White Paper making resources management in hospitals mandatory is due to come into effect in a year’s time and a report published last January by the Royal College of Physicians states that all junior doctors must now receive some training in medical auditing. The system can be used on any IBM compatible personal computer and can handle up to 2,000m patients’ records. For four users the total package is UKP40,000, the software alone costs UKP14,000. MicroMed Medical will be available for installation from June.
