Thoracic Surgery Audit

Liverpool, which is one of the largest thoracic surgery units in the UK utilises a thoracic surgery database from the company Aurora.

Database program for thoracic professionals

A well-designed management information system can provide you with the means to really improve the efficiency of the service that you provide. Use of an agreed data structure by all members of staff leads to transparency of information, greater understanding between colleagues, and easier generation of information and statistics. 

The Thoracic database was developed in co-operation with the Liverpool Cardiothoracic Centre. It incorporates the information necessary for making national returns as well as being an effective administration tool for clinicians.

The software provides intuitive, easy-to-use database facilities that require little or no IT experience. It is designed for the latest operating systems and will run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT or Windows XP to bring you the most user-friendly interface available.

On this form you can enter basic patient admission details. The system can be linked to the main hospital database so that typing the hospital number will automatically pull in the patient's demographic information. The database can be quickly searched on any of the visible fields. The right-hand section allows you to record multiple admissions and endoscopies for each patient. Double-clicking a specific admission record will take you to the main thoracic patient record screen.

This is the main form for individual patient details. As you can see, the wealth of information that can be recorded on the system is readily available via the tabs and data tree components that have been used as an integral part of the form. It is the equivalent to being able to jump immediately to any page of a fifty page document without having to turn the pages. Here you see the On Admissions tab with its sub-sections.

This is the Endoscopy tab where details of all the patient's relevant endoscopies can be recorded. The data is displayed in a full datagrid to accommodate multiple endoscopy records. Double-clicking on any one of the records in the datagrid will invoke a more detailed pop-up screen to be displayed as in the next illustration.

This pop-up form allows you to record additional information about each of the patient's endoscopies - including free text notes from the person who performed the endoscopy. The pop-up screen is accessed by double-clicking on any one of the endscopy records in the underlying datagrid.

The Diagnosis tab is also in the form of a full datagrid. This allows you to record as many elements to the patient's diagnosis as you determine are appropriate. As for the endoscopy records on the previous tab, double-clicking on any of these elements will invoke a pop-up screen that will allow you to write notes associated with individual elements. If there were notes associated with the diagnostic element above, there would be a tick in the Notes box to indicate this.

The Operations tab is designed so that multiple operations can be recorded for a single admission. This initial screen displays the key details for each operation and double-clicking on a specific operation record invokes a pop-up tab form where much more detail can be recorded.

This pop-up tab form allows you to record much more detail about a specific operation - the core details, the staff involved, the procedures undertaken as part of the operation, the lymph nodes and general notes on the operation.

The On Discharge tab allows you to record any complications that occurred during this admission, the outcome, post-mortem information in the case of the patient's death, medication prescribed on discharge and full notes.

This screen allows you to define the detailed hierarchy of interlinking information that can be recorded about the procedures undertaken as part of a patient's operation.

©2000 Aurora Computer Services Ltd.