Medical Practice Support System. A medical practitioner's multimedia workstation

The United States Navy has developed a computer based Medical Practice Support System (MEPSS) intended for use by medical practitioners working in isolated situations. The system, now being tested in operational settings, emphasizes inexpensive, easily obtained off-the-shelf hardware and specially developed, readily implemented software to provide users with: 1) medical record keeping, 2) an electronic medical library, 3) interactive video instruction programs suitable for continuing medical education, 4) computer based medical diagnosis and treatment assistance, and 5) electronic communications with other facilities. This demonstration emphasizes a user based developmental approach, integration of diverse systems under a single user interface, and portable hardware. The resulting system makes medical information needed by practitioners instantly available at the time of a patient encounter, whenever and wherever that encounter may occur. Making clinically valuable information immediately available, MEPSS demonstrates how practitioners can use computers to help their own efforts to improve patient care quality and efficiency.