> -----Original Message----- > From: centos-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:centos-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lanny Marcus > Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 7:49 AM > To: CentOS Mailing List > Subject: 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 ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and permanently delete the original and any copy or printout thereof. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos