Though, it might be better in the long run to have all of VistA in place and only use the demographic and lab portions of the VistA database. You can add your own tables through VA FileMan but with most of the tables and columns you will likely use are already in place. Extending to receiving data from medical devices will be easier if you start with the full VistA environment.
Do you wish to run on Linux or Windows? Do you anticipate having multiple "users" or just one at a time? -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Leo Zimmer Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 6:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] Need Help Using VistA to Track Patient Demographics For a Clincal Study Deepak, VistA (and, even more, the FileMan database manager at its core) could do your job very nicely. There have been many research projects within the VA, and in the Indian Health Service that relied upon data from VistA systems. You probably should not attempt to install the whole VistA hospital information system for your research. However, the subset that we call the Kernel is certainly powerful enough to meet your needs and is scalable to whatever sample size you are likely to require. regards, JohnLeo Zimmer, MD --------- Original Message ----------- From: Deepak Sreedharan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 19:49:45 -0500 Subject: [Hardhats-members] Need Help Using VistA to Track Patient Demographics For a Clincal Study > To Whom it May Concern, > > My name is Deepak Sreedharan and I work for a research lab at the > SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. As part of our breast studies > we collect clinical data from patients. The data includes demographics > [age, sex, race, residence and so forth] as well as clinical data > [height, weight, history of illnesses, allergies, medications, lab > values, radiologic films, etc.]. We currently keep track of this > data using mostly paper and some excel files but we would like to start > storing this data in a database using a more friendly user > interface. VistA appears useful though I need someone's opinion on > if it is suitable for a lab our size. > > My resources include: > 1.) One P4, 2.5Ghz PC with 1GB RAM and I could buy as a large a hard > drive as needed. > 2.) We are set up on the schools network. We have little IT support > but I used to develop software so I can handle most routine technical > problems on my own. > > My requirements: > 1.) I need to track the patient demographics and the clinical data I > mentioned above for about 50 patients [hopefully more in the future]. > 2.) I'm hoping that VistA runs on MySQL [or another database] so that > I can have direct access to the tables that store this patient data. > If VistA does not run on MySQL or some other database perhaps you > know of some open source EMR software that does. The reason I need access > to the underlying database is because there is some other data [data > from a medical device we are building] that I need to store on the > database. > > I've used the CPRS demo found on the va's website and that seems > perfect for my needs. If I could set in my lab that up that would be > ideal. > > My questions: > 1.) Does VistA seem suited for our purposes given the size of my lab, > the resources I have available and the scope of our project? [I know > it is typically used by hospitals not research labs]. If not could > you suggest some other open source EMR software? > 2.) Does VistA run on a database like MySQL on which I can add my > own tables and have direct access to the data? > > Sincerely, > Deepak Sreedharan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/ _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/ _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
