"Medical informatics in a medical research facility. An interactive multimedia presentation". Diabetes as a model

This interactive demonstration provides a model for integrating information in a medical facility. By the use of networking computers, diagnostic data and scientific data are shared between geographically-separated clinical and research units. Data collected in a patient database in the outpatient clinic is sorted on specified qualifying criteria and the resulting subset further analyzed for research studies. To show the process of patient selection from a general database to a diabetes database, and further selection to a subset of diabetes, i.e., Diabetic Neuropathy, the authors used HyperCard. Firstly, HyperCard provided us with a flexible design allowing for both vertical and horizontal progressions. Because we wanted to include an educational component on diabetes and its complications, this flexibility was important. At any point in the demonstration, the viewer is able to access more information nested in several levels. Secondly, we wanted to be able to import a variety of programs that are used to translate diagnostic data into scientific data that is analyzed and prepared for publication in a medical textbook or journal. According to Douglas Adams, author of "Pathways and Relationships", HyperCard occupies the same niche in the evolution of software as human beings do in the evolution of life. "It's the fact that we are unspecialized but infinitely adaptable that has been our success as a species. In the same way, HyperCard is unspecialized but can turn its hand to any kind of task. And if the task is beyond it, HyperCard can use the phone, go for a ride on Excel, or go out and find a powerful graphics tool or sophisticated wordprocessing program!"