A simple tool for designing a database: bridging the communication gaps among health care providers, researchers, and programmers.
As databases are used by a greater variety of people, highly technical methods of designing them are giving way to more human, user-centered approaches. The article describes a human approach to designing a complex, multiuse database with limited resources. The article introduces a simple data modeling tool, the entity-relationship (E-R) diagram, that crosses professional boundaries and enables providers, researchers, and programmers to communicate more easily. Constructing an E-R diagram provides a human description of the social health maintenance organization (S/HMO) multisite demonstration project. This project, now in its tenth year, provides integrated acute and community-based in-home services to allow frail elderly HMO members to stay in their homes. After briefly reviewing the three types of databases and three rules of thumb for designing a relational database, the article shows how a simple E-R diagram can clarify the management and research issues of the S/HMO health care model. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the benefits and limits of housing research-related health data in a relational database.
Phelps
L W
LW
Social HMO Consortium, USA.
Lamb
S
S
Lyons
R W
RW
Ripley
J
J
Ervin
S
S
Weinraub
H
H
Brody
K K
KK
D003142:Communication; D003191:Comprehensive Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D003628:Database Management Systems; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012107:Research Design; D012984:Software; D014481:United States