CentOS - Aug 2007 - OT: Suggestions for database for physicians patient records?

This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
be much appreciated!

My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients
(over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless
of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier for
his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it,
that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
mandatory,
if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses
and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get
the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent
documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
Lanny

If you want to take this offline I'll chat with you further.  However, if
it's just for in office use I'd look at using CentOS, postgresql (not
MYSQL), php, and APACHE.  It wouldn't be very hard to throw together an app
that would do what you want that is web based.

Of course if he wants a fat client it would be very easy to develop a database
structure and use either access as the custom front end or develop a program in
your language of choice (java or .net based).

Geoff

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lanny Marcus <mailing-lists at computer2.com>

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:48:54 
To:CentOS Mailing List <centos at centos.org>
Subject: [CentOS] OT: Suggestions for database for physicians patient
	records?


This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
be much appreciated!

My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients
(over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless
of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier for
his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it,
that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
mandatory,
if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses
and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get
the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent
documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
Lanny

_______________________________________________
CentOS mailing list
CentOS at centos.org
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Lanny Marcus
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 7:49 AM
> To: CentOS Mailing List
> Subject: [CentOS] OT: Suggestions for database for physicians 
> patientrecords?
> 
> This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right 
> direction, to
> other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
> be much appreciated!
> 
> My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 
> 6000 patients
> (over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
> century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, 
> regardless
> of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
> also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
> databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
> length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
> might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
> very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier
for
> his secretaries to input patient records to the database and 
> access it,
> that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
> mandatory,
> if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 
> surgeons, nurses
> and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
> connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to 
> help him get
> the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, 
> excellent
> documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
> Lanny
There are numerous systems out there, but what I would look for is more
on a document management system then specifically a database.

If it were myself doing this I would look at some way to take a scan of
a medical record into PDF with an OCR that will create a PDF text overlay
so it can be indexed into a database and become fully searchable.

I saw an OCR engine for Linux, a port of a popular commercial OCR engine,
I think it was distributed by Vividata called OCR Shop XTR, it's
command-line
driven and is designed for working with large batches at once, I think it
is around $5K. Combine that with a photocopier that scans into PDFs and
dumps it to a samba share which feeds it into the software and after a tuning
period you can crank those 6K files into PDFs that can be fully imported into
just about any document management system out there.

-Ross

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On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 06:48 -0500, Lanny Marcus wrote:
> This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
> other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
> be much appreciated!
> 
> My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients
> (over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
> century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless
> of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
> also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
> databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
> length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
> might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
> very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier
for
> his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it,
> that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
mandatory,
> if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses
> and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
> connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get
> the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent
> documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
> Lanny
> 
You might want to take a look at Vista available at sourceforge and
other web locations.  It's a complete electronic medical record system
that is scalable from hospital  type applications down to a doctors'
office.  Server/database can run on Linux, workstations must run
windows, IIRC.  Free software developed years ago by Veterans
Administration and still actively maintained.

Good luck,
B.J.
 
Ubuntu 7.04 Fiesty, Linux 2.6.20-16-generic unknown 08:19:13 up 1:15, 1
user, load average: 0.04, 0.08, 0.08

Before you go throwing together a solution, you need to check the laws
in your state and country.  Here in the US there are laws that say how
patient data can be stored.  There are compliant software packages for
Dr's and Hospitals that include everything they need including stuff
like medical billing.

Some of the newer systems also support the wireless tablet computers
that the Dr's and Nurses carry from room to room.

Just keep in mind, you are handling people's private information, so
security is your #1 priority.

-matt

On 8/20/07, Lanny Marcus <mailing-lists at computer2.com>
wrote:
> This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
> other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
> be much appreciated!
>
> My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients
> (over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
> century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless
> of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
> also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
> databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
> length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
> might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
> very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier
for
> his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it,
> that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
mandatory,
> if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses
> and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
> connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get
> the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent
> documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
> Lanny
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

Lanny Marcus wrote:
> This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
> other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
> be much appreciated!
http://www.care2x.org/

take a look at that, I've seen smallish Private practices to 400 bed
hospitals running that recently.

- KB

-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq

Lanny Marcus wrote:
> This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to
> other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will
> be much appreciated!
>
> My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients
> (over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th
> century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless
> of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I
> also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other
> databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable
> length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect
> might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be
> very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier
for
> his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it,
> that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not
mandatory,
> if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses
> and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations
> connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get
> the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent
> documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much!
> Lanny
>   
I'm not sure of your location, but if you're in the US, you need to make
sure the solution is HIPPA compliant or you could find yourself in hot 
water later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPPA

Best,

On 8/20/07, Lanny Marcus <mailing-lists at computer2.com> wrote:
<snip>
To everyone who responded, thank you! I will be reading (and studying!)
your replies and trying to come up with the best suggestion(s) for the
doctor to consider. Lanny