ArchiMed: A medical information and retrieval system

ArchiMed is a highly flexible medical data storage and retrieval system whi ch adds sophisticated clinical research support to a standard hospital info rmation system (HIS). Currently, the HIS of Vienna General Hospital-University Hospital (2000 bed s) stores the clinical data of over 2 million patients. While this system s upports patient care (e.g., ADT, clinical chemistry, diagnosis, procedures) , it has no features to facilitate research, such as the management of clin ical studies. ArchiMed is designed to support clinical research. It includes an independe nt database, which mirrors virtually all the information held in the HIS wh ile also allowing new data to be collected independently and to be added to the database. Flexible retrieval and analysis of data contained in the dat abase are then possible. Thus, existing patient data can be smoothly incorp orated into a study together with data collected specifically for research purposes. The system has already been successfully installed in the departm ents of surgery and soon in other departments as well.