A data storage and retrieval system for clinical research in oncology

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Abstract
In clinical research it is of the utmost importance to keep standards of treatment at the highest possible level. However, extracting data from the patient's file often involves much work and obtaining answers to questions may be very time consuming. A computer can be introduced to reduce the amount of this work to a minimum. In this paper a system will be described that can be easily used by non-computer experts for data entry and retrieval. It is designed in such a way that it can cope with many different research studies. No reprogramming is necessary for new applications. The system can be implemented on a dedicated computer having a FORTRAN compiler with overlay facilities, and may be run on a computer used for radiotherapy planning. In the design phase the following requirements were specified for the system: it should be modular so that changes and new programs can be inserted easily; it should be easy to use by non-computer experts; it should be flexible so that it can be used for different diseases; it should contain a statistics package; it should have graphics possibilities; it should be fast so that it can be used in an interactive manner. It was decided that the retrieval process should be facilitated by means of a keyword oriented language which should be easy to learn and use.

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