title: Experimental identification of technical and database factors that can affect the success of clinical computer systems.
abstract: The entry of clinical data into computer systems is an extremely demanding form of transaction processing. High speed is important, especially if the collection involves real-time data. Clinicians must feel that they intuitively understand a system and that it is responsive. Medical data must be easily accommodated without sacrificing accuracy or completeness. Most systems cannot do this. Clinical systems that involve on-line storage of data from patients should employ data-base technology. Systems that lack any of the following capabilities will not succeed: manual data entry, a data dictionary, a file system, utility functions, ad hoc query, and a statistical report generator. These general capabilities must satisfy a number of specific functional requirements if the entire system is to be a success. A group of such requirements have been experimentally validated. These will be discussed and a more comprehensive list presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Essin
mesh_terms: D003199:Computer Systems; D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000592:standards; D012015:Reference Standards; D012984:Software / Q000592:standards; D014584:User-Computer Interface