title: The Department of Veterans Affairs Optical Patient Card Workstation.
abstract: The Department of Veterans Affairs has developed an optical patient card application which will undergo alpha testing in 1991. The optical cards are carried by patients and contain administrative, clinical, and image information. An optical patient card workstation (OPCW) will read/write these cards and pass this information to the VA Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP), the VA's health care information system. The intent of this work is to study the potential benefits of this technology to the VA's distributed health care network, with a large mobile patient population. It is hoped that the use of optical cards and the OPCW will enhance clinicians ability to work with a timely composite health record, and expedite the administrative workload of the medical center.
authors.affiliation: Albany Information Systems Center, Department of Veterans Affairs, Troy, NY 12180.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Demetriades
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Babcock
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000379:methods; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D008499:Medical Records; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008838:Microcomputers; D016249:Optical Storage Devices; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs