rhg@ncoast.UUCP (Rich Garrett) (04/17/87)
I am looking for comments from fellow net readers to help me make a strategic decision for a company that will be moving their hospital information system software from pascal to a fourth generation language. They currently have over 70 hospitals in the under 300 bed marketplace. My questions are as follows: Which of the databases that are available running under Un*x or VMS would you recommend and why? In that a portable environment (hardware) is important; what suggestions do you have? Since the company will be converting from Pascal to a database, probably with some C routines, are there any software tools and or companies that would assist in such an effort? They are also looking for a hardware to use as the base environment. Many vendors have been mentioned; ATT, Convergent, NCR, Unisys and DEC. Comments from fellow software developers regarding support policies and VAR relationships would be appreciated. Thank you in advance for your efforts in providing me with valuable experience! Rich Garrett -- ncoast!rhg@Case.CSNet (ncoast!rhg%Case.CSNet@CSNet-Relay.ARPA) ..decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!rhg Public Access Number ncoast is dead, long live ncoast! (216) 781-6201
lincoln@randvax.UUCP (04/23/87)
In article <2378@ncoast.UUCP> rhg@ncoast.UUCP (Rich Garrett) writes: >I am looking for comments from fellow net readers to help me make a strategic >decision for a company that will be moving their hospital information system >software from pascal to a fourth generation language. They currently have >over 70 hospitals in the under 300 bed marketplace. >Which of the databases that are available running under Un*x or VMS would >you recommend and why? *** What do you mean by hospital information system: a. Billing and financial software with a patient registration on-line capability and a bill posting capability? b. A system that links various medical support services together with nursing station order entry - that then feeds a? c. A system that maintains some subset of the patient medical chart on-line which can be queried from various sites in the hospital and possibly remotely? Each of these implies a different design, different data base requirements, etc., with increasing complexity from a to c. The closer that one comes to the clinical setting, the more complex the data structures must be to capture the relevant information in a useable fashion. >Since the company will be converting from Pascal to a database, probably >with some C routines, are there any software tools and or companies that >would assist in such an effort? Medical applications require fourth generation tools for the screen interface that link the user to data base in many complex ways. Dan Essin, Director of Information Systems, Womens Hospital, LAC/USC Medical Center has made a particular study of these fourth generation functional requirements, and will present them in June at a meeting in San Diego. The checklist exceeds 50 functions, and no product, Unix based or otherwise carries them all out well. This approach should allow you to make concrete trade-offs in this critical area. His #:(213)226-3188 or via E-mail to me. Tom Lincoln lincoln@rand-unix.ARPA