JackChoi,
So here's how I handle my lab data. It's a carryover from before AC, when I had my own primitive EMR. It was a simple database (with demographics, problem list, rx list and labs), coupled with a pdf file for each patient that had all the progress notes, reports etc.
The database was implemented in MySQL on an internet server; the forms for accessing the database were done in Microsoft Access, with an ODBC connection to the database. I used MySQL because I wanted to be able to access the database from various locations. Whenever I needed to do any programming for the database, I used PHP because I was familiar with it from my experiments with website hosting.
As for the labs, I used to handwrite flowcharts of important lab values. Then I switched to adding the labs to the database, typing in the values into a form in the Access database. So the labs would get added to my database, and I would display them in a webpage, programmed in PHP, which would display inside the Access database. Obviously, this was time-consuming (typing in the lab values), so the next step was importing them automatically. Quest, which I use for about 90% of patients, is able to dump the HL7 file onto my desktop. I just needed to find a way to get the HL7 into the database. I did this using PHP and MySQL, which is clearly not the most efficient way to do it, but since I was comfortable with PHP, that's what I did, and it works.
When labs come in from different sources, I can still input them (via an online form), which is important to me. This is really the reason I don't use the interface to Quest exclusively -- I like to see labs flowsheeted even if they're from somewhere else.
Now that I use AC, I have an Imported Item which is just a link to an online form that displays the lab flowsheet.
That's how I deal with labs; sorry for the somewhat rambling explanation.
Michael
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Michael Jacobson, MD
New York, NY
