[Management of personal health examination data for a population by use of a portable computer]

A new system was developed for processing annual personal health examination data with a portable microcomputer utilizing commercial software by converting the IBM formatted data file of the law mandated health examination for adults into an MS-DOS file. The sequential data file was further transferred into a random access data file by a simple program and software was developed for the presentation of annual personal data by table and graphs. Printout of data and selected comments filed on disc by the public health nurse or physician could become retrievable. This system is easily operated by a beginner in micro-computers from conversion of the original data to actual demonstration. This system was utilized for a small village of about 700 adults. By using part of the main memory as a RAM disc, presentation of 5 years' data was possible. File capacity was dependent on population size and also on the type of software for Japanese language input. In the case of a larger population, use of hard disc or expansion of memory may be recommended to shorten computer start-up time. Once necessary data has been placed into the field buffer's memory, retrieval of data requires less than one second. The results of health examination were usually provided by hard copies to village. But by use of this system, a more effective transfer of data between computerized systems by using a floppy disc is possible.