Computer-based Patient Recorder System Based On XML

Computer-based Patient Recorder (CPR), as a vital part of digital hospital, is drawing more and more manufacturers'and expert's attention all over the world. Since normal medical record's structure is quite complex. Moreover, different sections, even the same one, will have great discrepancies in their medical records. As a result, research work on Human-Computer Interface tools of Computer-based Patient Recorder based on XML will be a promising way out for these problems一. Basic principles and technologies1. Computer-based Patient Recorder(1) Definition of Computer-based Patient Recorder Computer-based Patient Recorder is a digital medical record stored in a computer system. This system can not only ensure the integrity and accuracy of its users'files, but also send out suggestions as well as alarms to medical staff. Also, it can provide clinical decision-making services, connection management, document index, clinical knowledge storage and all other related devices management.(2) Structure of Computer-based Patient RecorderMedical record is a history of people's health, containing kinds of contents, for example: Patient's personal information, contact information, inpatient basic information, diagnostic messages, principal responsible person, surgical record, medical order, reckoning and et cetera.2.XMLXML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose markup language. It is classified as an extensible language used in Web environment. Its primary purpose is to overcome kinds of deficiencies in HTML, facilitate the sharing and organizing of data across different software developers and other creators in internet and satisfy increasing requirement coming from net world. The usage of XML to describe CPR is according to both medical records'characteristics and XML's advantages.1. Convenient for medical records'storage and protection.2. Convenient for information exchange and search.3. Convenient for medical records'modification.4. XML is independent of specific language and has plenty of support tools.5. XML has free style and only focuses on content.6. Semi-structured data description.二. System's General Design1. Construction of Computer-based Patient Recorder databasePatient record is a semi-structured data, which has heterogeneous character. Some patient records are simple, but some are very complex including check-up or assay report. In order to make an environment convenient for transformation between data in different format, we need to find a highly flexible and compatible data model.(1) CPR Tree StructureGenerally speaking, data can be organized in tree structure if they have particular features.(2) DTD format of Computer-based Patient RecorderDTD can be considered as one or more XML file templates. These XML files contain elements, their attributes, sort order, and content. All of them must be fit for DTD's definition.2. System Architecture DesignAccording to requirement of data and Computer-based Patient Recorder, we select the popular C/S architecture. In this architecture, the whole system is divided into three layers: User Interface Layer, Logical Layer and Database.3. Object-Oriented Application (1) Definition of Object and ClassObject is an abstract of a real thing or an abstract of the implementation of a real thing in the problem space. It's also a kind of encapsulation of attributes as well as behaviors of one thing. We can use an object to precisely describe a specific thing, and use a class to represent a group of similar things.(2) Definition of AttributeWe can define an attribute by analyzing those adjectives related to the object or other nouns which have not been considered as objects. For example: in Computer-based Patient Recorder System, nouns related toobjects are:Computer-based Patient Recorder: Content et cetera.Doctor: enquiry, check-up et cetera.Patient: Basic information, additional information et cetera. Basing on these, we can know that object"Computer-based Patient Recorder"should have attributes of content. Object"Doctor"and object"Patient"should have attributes of enquiry and basic information.三. Design and Implementation of Human-Computer Interface Development ToolHuman-Computer Interface development tool is composed by three important parts: Interface-Designer, Interface-Translator and Interface-Parser. They are respectively in charge of interface designing, interface file format translating and interface running.1. Design and Implementation of Interface-DesignerInterface-Designer is an important module of Human-Computer Interface development tool. It is the base of both Interface-Translator and Interface-Parser.First of all, a complete patient record template database is created. Users, doctor or nurse, can pick out specific items in the template according to their own need. Interface-Designer will find out corresponding items from object database and form them into a new patient record template. This new template will be stored in the template database. At the same time, the Interface-Template-Creator will produce a XML format file based on this new template.2. Design and Implementation of Interface-TranslatorThe main function of Interface-Translator is to select template from defined template database. After that, the template is parsed by XML parser to get every element object described in the template. And then, the Interface-Translator will dynamically create those element objects in Human-Computer Interface, according to element object's specific description in element object database.3. Design and Implementation of Interface-ParserThe main function of Interface-Parser is: loading, displaying, running interface file written in XML format.At first, Interface-Translator translates XML files into particular format input files. And then, these files will be input into complier as parameters by interface-parser. The output of the complier will be some executive files. Afterwards, a Human-Computer Interface will be loaded once those executive files are running. Meanwhile, this interface can receive and answer different messages coming from customers.四. Application1. Elements in CPRA complete medical records database is composed by elements below: Front page of medical case, discharge conclusion, inpatient record, illness history record, test application, test result, nurse record, hospitalization record.2. System's FunctionThis system has functions as follow: Creating new medical records, Storing medical records, Modifying medical records, Browsing medical records, Printing medical records, Template setting, System maintaining.五. SummaryComputer-based Patient Recorder is a vital part and research hotspot of medical information system. Meanwhile, CPR is also the core of a new generation patient-centered medical information system. In this paper, we intensively analyze how to generate Computer-based Patient Recorder System's input interface automatically based on XML.By using interface template described by XML, which has nice performance on complex semi-structured data description, we can easily construct CPR input interface. Those templates are stored in template database in XML format. When user needs to construct a new record, they can select a template from database. With the help of template-parser, this template is translated into specific CRP input interface. This method successfully solves the confliction between structured and unstructured, specialized and generalized problems in medical record.