Abstract
We present an original database especially designed for healthcare professionals involved in the treatment and management of neuro-oncology patients. It was created by Mr AP (Neuro-oncology clinical fellow) on an idea by Mr RVI (Consultant Neurosurgeon) to meet the specific needs and requests directly collected from the end users.
It is a homemade, low-cost solution which sits in a common folder of the Trust’s Server. Microsoft Access has been chosen as a platform because of its ubiquity on the computers of the Trust: authorized people can access, consult and input patient information from everywhere in the hospital.
Surgeons, Oncologists, Radiotherapists, Speech and Language / Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Specialist Nurses, Research Nurses, and Secretaries all have their own tabs for input within the patient’s electronic record: the content of these tabs is highly specific for neuro-oncology cases and it has been suggested by the individual specialist figures (for example, in the surgical tab there are templates for operative notes).
Each patient’s record is completed with a tab containing all the patient’s electronic documents (including paper/email correspondence, intra-operative videos / snapshots). Quick links connect the database to the most common software products used in the hospital, including the Somerset Cancer Register.
A tracking system allow to highlight patients awaiting for treatments, imaging or follow-up and discussion.
Teaching cases can be easily filtered and selected as well.
The proposed database is a dedicated, efficient and low-cost product for keeping neuro-oncology patients’ records tidy and in a single virtual place. It is a powerful and practical solution while awaiting for a professional software which could do the same and possibly even tightly integrating with PACS, the online on-call referral system and other online database (such as Somerset).