A new Pick based computer thyroid register based on the national SAFUR requirements for local usage

Abstract

Patients with thyroid disease require lifelong surveillance to detect late onset hypothyroidism and to monitor thyroid replacement therapy. This is best achieved by a shared-care computer system. We describe the introduction to Tayside (Ninewells Hospital) of a new computerised thyroid follow-up programme based on the Patient Record System under a Pick operating system, run on a Honeywell-Bull minicomputer. This new programme has allowed the transfer of patients from the previous Aberdeen based SAFUR centralised service to a locally based unit, offering an improved, updated and cost effective method for thyroid disease surveillance. Audit, clinical and financial, may now be more efficiently achieved, allowing local needs to direct the service provision.