Experiences with the Use of Automation for Collecting and Recording Medical-History Data^{[*)] [**)]}

For the past several years, experimental studies have been undertaken at the Mayo Clinic to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing electronic data processing to handle medical information, especially the medical information which makes up a medical record. We have experimented with automated techni- ques for collecting and storing medical-history data, specifically with techniques for computer generation and processing of health questionnaires, for computer-controlled administration of health questionnaires, and for computer-controlled entry and retrieval of medical-history data directly by physicians in ordinary English language by use of a video-screen and light-pen computer terminal.

The questionnaire studies are concerned with ways of entering into computer storage medical-history data obtained from patients without physician involvement; the video-screen studies are concerned with entry into computer storage of medical-history data obtained by physicians in their interview with the patient. The paper describes our experiences in these studies.

Seit einigen Jahren laufen an der Mayo-Klinik experimentelle Studien zur Bewertung der Einsatz-möglichkeit von elektronischen Anlagen zur Verarbeitung medizinischer Informationen, speziell der Angaben der Krankengeschichte. Dabei wurde mit automatisierten Methoden der Sammlung und Speicherung von Anamnese-Daten experimentiert, insbesondere mit Techniken der Computer-Erstellung und -Bearbeitung von Gesundheits-Fragebogen, der maschinell kontrollierten Handhabung solcher Fragebogen und der computergesteuerten Ein- und Ausgabe von anamnestischen, vom Arzt erhobenen Angaben in gewöhnlicher englischer Sprache mit Hilfe von Bildschirm- und Lichtgriffel-Terminals.

Die Fragebogen-Studien befassen sich mit den Möglichkeiten, ohne Intervention des Arztes direkt vom Patienten erhaltene Anamnese-Angaben in den Computer einzuspeichern; die Bildschirm-Untersuchungen betreffen die Computereingabe solcher, von den Ärzten im Gespräch mit den Patienten erhobenen Anamnese-Daten. Die Arbeit beschreibt die Erfahrungen dieser Untersuchungen.

^*) Read at the Ninth IBM Medical Symposium, Burlington, Vermont, October 24–26, 1968.

^**) A portion of this investigation was supported by contract PH-110-236 with the Automation Section Health Facilities Services Branch, Public Health Service.

Publication History

Publication Date:
09 February 2018 (online)

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