Metabase: A Microcomputer System in Evolution in a Gastroenterology Hospital

Abstract

There are advantages to being “behind the times”. In the 1970s our hospitals research records workers could only be jealous of colleagues in academic departments of gastroenterology in the United States and more advanced European countries, for whom hospital mainframe computer departments were providing database facilities unavailable to our 93-bed hospital. However, some frustrating experiences in trying to deal with the professionals of outlying computer departments suggested to us that having control of one’s own computer and interpretation of its data had advantages in avoiding the misunderstanding, delays and misinterpretation that result from interfacing through human beings, rather than directly with the computer. The advent of microcomputers brought computing within our price range, but the plethora of rival and idiosyncratic machines made it necessary to specify a microcomputer policy for the hospital:

• 1 Microcomputers in the institution should be compatible, upgradable and easily serviced.

• 2 The database software used should be capable of networking, allow future upgrades without loss of data, provide analysis without professional help and be easy-to-use and secure from “crashes” in incompetent hands.