Vascular surgical data registries for small computers

Recent designs for computer-based vascular surgical registries and clinical data bases have employed large centralized systems with formal programming and mass storage. Small computers, of the types created for office use or for word processing, now contain sufficient speed and memory storage capacity to allow construction of decentralized office-based registries. Using a standardized dictionary of terms and a method of data organization adapted to word processing, we have created a new vascular surgery data registry, "VASREG." Data files are organized without programming, and a limited number of powerful logical statements in English are used for sorting. The capacity is 25,000 records with current inexpensive memory technology. VASREG is adaptable to computers made by a variety of manufacturers, and interface programs are available for conversion of the word processor formated registry data into forms suitable for analysis by programs written in a standard programming language. This is a low-cost clinical data registry available to any physician. With a standardized dictionary, preparation of regional and national statistical summaries may be facilitated.