VIDA II: a computerised diagnostic recording system for veterinary investigation centres in Great Britain

"Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis" II is a computerised recording system for all the diagnoses made at 33 Government diagnostic laboratories in Great Britain. It was created in 1975 and the records of 150,000 specimens are stored on it each year. The system depends on an agreed list of 393 possible diagnoses (101 cattle, 96 sheep, 72 pigs, 71 birds and 53 for other species). Diagnostic records are sent each month to a computer centre which produces an annual record of all diagnoses made and a monthly record of the number of submissions and financial charges. The computer file can be interrogated from a terminal at the epidemiology unit Weybridge and the diagnostic records are available to research workers.