A scheme for assuring lifelong readability in computer based medical records

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Digital Archiving
• Medical Record Management

Background:

• Medical records require long-term preservation, but digital systems are frequently updated (every 5-6 years).
• Ensuring consistent readability across different vendor systems is a significant challenge for long-term medical record accessibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate the Document Archiving and Communication System (DACS) for lifelong medical record readability.
• To address the challenge of maintaining access to medical records despite frequent system upgrades and vendor changes.

Main Methods:

• DACS treats medical records as aggregations of documents, converting them to universally readable formats like PDF.
• Document metadata and key data are stored in XML format and transferred to a Document Deliverer.
• Data is archived in a Document Archiver, Document Sharing Server, and Data Warehouse (DWH), with developed Matrix and Tree Views for document organization.

Main Results:

• The DACS enables integrated viewing of all documents through a single viewer, facilitating patient history review.
• Documents are presented in chronological (Matrix View) and hierarchical (Tree View) structures for efficient retrieval.
• Data sharing across systems and analysis via DWH are supported, enhancing data utility.

Conclusions:

• DACS successfully ensures the lifelong readability and accessibility of medical records.
• The system integrates disparate documents, improves user access to patient information, and enables valuable data analysis.