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Database for research

K

kallun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2007
28
0
Hi!

I am a medical doctor. We plan to buy new software for creating a database for clinical research purposes. Currently all patient files are in government provided software which is severely lacking for searching keywords assebling different categories of patients into groups, statistics etc. I plan to create a new database for research purposes which will invlove many thousands of operating records and patient data such as diagnosis, complications, age, operating time etc. The journaling software mentioned above will also have to be used.

I woul appreciate advice/experience for software to this purpose. The set-up will be_ A nurse keys in all the relevant data. Any and all parametres should be searchable and groups of date should be able to be extracted and analyzed. It must be easy to use by a nurse and flexible in terms of adding new data points.

Does anyone have experience or advice? mySQL based databases? Filemaker Pro? The database could also be custom built. Money is no object.

Many thanks!!

/Kalle
 
Due to HIPPAA I would look towards a product that does not violate patient privacy rules and stores the information securely, i.e., encrypted. Consumer level database products are lacking in compliance in HIPPA.
 
miles01110 said:
You probably aren't allowed to store medical data (at least patient data) in just any old database program. There are a lot of regulatory requirements for storing medical data.
Click to expand...

Hi! I am not worried about that. When I have selected the database it will be encrypted and it will also not contain identifiable information of patients like social security numbers etc. We have a lot of experience regarding data collection and ethical permits to do so but we need advice on the software!

/Kalle
 
Since this is more of qualitative (not quantitative) research, perhaps consider two programs, neither is cheap, but there is tremendous power.

Tinderbox, the power of this program has not been reached by some of the best users.

Qualitative Research with Tinderbox

Forums, to find many applications that have been developed.​

One of the secret strengths of TB is the ability to link extensively, using originals and aliases without distrupting to duplicating data.


HyperRESEARCH. They have examples and references.
 
Last edited:
Thanks! Will look into these. What about Filemaker? Anyone have experience with FMP?

exegete77 said:
Since this is more of qualitative (not quantitative) research, perhaps consider two programs, neither is cheap, but there is tremendous power.

Tinderbox, the power of this program has not been reached by some of the best users.

Qualitative Research with Tinderbox

Forums, to find many applications that have been developed.​

One of the secret strengths of TB is the ability to link extensively, using originals and aliases without distrupting to duplicating data.


HyperRESEARCH. They have examples and references.
Click to expand...
 
Filemaker is very good. You can do whatever you want with it. Now online databasers are the way to go and you can create powerful applications with MySQL server (it doesn't have to be on the internet). Requires some programming though.
 
FileMaker is a powerful and wonderful tool and can be customized to manage your data needs.
 
If you want a lot more power than Filemaker

Consider using 4D. I have used this on a number of scientific patient based projects since 1996 and it has served me well and has been capable of complex calculations, visual display of calendar or family tree data and robust backup through timed back-up and mirroring. I used to develop in Filemaker for these projects, but for the last 14 years have used 4D exclusively for scientific endeavours (www.4d.com)

There is sadly, at the moment no easy iPad/iPhone solution for 4D, which is where Filemaker excels, but for raw number crunching/searching etc it is very powerful.

If you are not into much programming some of the data collection/analysis software associated with SPSS or SAS may be more appropriate although this will take a bigger chunk of your grant funding. If you have a epidemiology department, do talk to them as these people seem to be getting to grips with the vagaries of clinical records and are not just relying on the old forms of coded data.

HTH

SS
 
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