An epilepsy information system to support routine and research

An epilepsy information system is described that supports routine patient care, research, and medical management. The patient's clinical data is ordered in time by the date of the patient contact when the data was collected. The clinical data is also classified into six categories. An unrestricted text group has text subjects in each of these groups as well as in a general free text area. The system is integrated with other information subsystems (e.g. patient registration, clinical chemistry laboratory, EEG department and pharmacy) as well as with the routinely used text processor. Data inquiries for research and medical management purposes are programmed in a Structured Query Language (SQL). The data needed to answer these queries are taken from the data collected in daily routine. The integration of the system is very useful because data only have to be entered once and can be used when and where needed. Patient data stored in this system is more accessible in general as well as more usable for research purposes compared with the patient data previously stored only on paper.