[Computerization in private urologic practice with multiple practice locations: the use of medical software and a portable microcomputer]

Abstract

The authors have used a medical programme, Medistory, since June 1990 to computerize a private urological practice. This programme allows personalization of data collection adapted to urology: interview sheets related to the disease, standard report forms, edition of letters, creation of a multi-entry file and entering of accounts. The consultation was always held without a paper support with real-time data acquisition and the accounting was performed at the end of the visit. Letters were printed separately at home, at the end of the day, so as not to delay the patient. A back-up was performed every second day on hard disk. We used a portable Macintosh with 20 mega octets of REM and a 40 mega octet internal hard disk as our practice is based at several sites. This computerisation benefited from the Macintosh interface which facilitated learning and use of the programme. No time loss and no patient discomfort were recorded in comparison with a conventional consultation. The possibility of opening several files at the same time allowed a simple reply to any demands for other information. Two files out of 700 were lost (0.3%) due to an error when saving data. No accounting errors were detected. The use of a medical programme is particularly well adapted to private urological practice with multiple offices. The advantages of a personal computer include the gain of place, rapidity, unlimited storage capacity and the possibility of recovering data with other standard programmes. Medistory, a programme created for general practitioners, is perfectly adapted to this use due to the ease of personalization allowing the creation of interview sheets related to the disease and the edition of reports and various letters.