[Computers in a private surgeon's office. "Do it yourself" or "one is never served better than by oneself"]

In an attempt to minimise the administrative work involved in private surgical practice, the author naturally considered the use of computers. After studying the medical software market, he was convinced that most software was better adapted to general practice than to surgery. He concluded that the best person to design a surgical software would be the surgeon himself, provided he was prepared to spend some of his leisure time to develop a computer application. The software developed is a large integrated application facilitating all of the functions necessary to good functioning of the surgical office. It therefore ensures filing of medical records, correspondence, accounts, management of salaries, and appointments, as all of these sectors are related to the surgical activity itself. This approach led to the design of an application, and its functioning and the possibilities provided are described.