The use of X-terminals as clinical workstations

The Medical Computer Facility at the Fox Chase Cancer Center has installed X-terminals in patient examination rooms and at nursing stations for clinical data access by physicians and nurses. The X-terminals are connected to UNIX operating system RISC processors via Ethernet. The RISC processors communicate with databases on a minicomputer cluster. Simultaneous presentation of textual (e.g., pathology and radiology reports) and graphical (e.g., clinical laboratory results) clinical data is provided under X-Windows. CT and MRI images can also be displayed in windows. Our experiences implementing X-terminal clinical workstations in a production environment will be discussed.