title: Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects (XSL-FO): a tool to transform patient data into attractive clinical reports.
abstract: Clinicians at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis print and carry clinical reports called "Pocket Rounds". This paper describes a new process we developed to improve these clinical reports. The heart of our new process is a World Wide Web Consortium standard: Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). Using XSL-FO stylesheets we generated Portable Document Format (PDF) and PostScript reports with complex formatting: columns, tables, borders, shading, indents, dividing lines. We observed patterns of clinical report printing during a eight month study period on three Medicine wards. Usage statistics indicated that clinicians accepted the new system enthusiastically: 78% of 26,418 reports were printed using the new system. We surveyed 67 clinical users. Respondents gave the new reports a rating of 4.2 (on a 5 point scale); they gave the old reports a rating of 3.4. The primary complaint was that it took longer to print the new reports. We believe that XSL-FO is a promising way to transform text data into functional and attractive clinical reports: relatively easy to implement and modify.
authors.affiliation: Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Linas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Simonaitis
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Belsito
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Warvel
authors.forename: Siu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.forename: Clement J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003628:Database Management Systems; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D010209:Paper; D011381:Programming Languages; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface