| Abstract: | A database is electronic information. Substantial improvement in the quality of life of cancer patients and their families could be effected by the implementation of existing knowledge of pain and symptom control. The development of a standardised assessment system in the form of a computer database would highlight areas warranting focused attention. Moreover, such a system would provide a frame of reference against which ongoing clinical, pharmacological and epidemiological research could then be applied. We present the design of an inpatient database being piloted at the Centre for Palliative Care (CPCI).Our focus is the development of a standardised instrument for in patients admitted to our hospice and tertiary palliative care unit, and then an ongoing observational system which is maintained on a database throughout the phase of care.The development of the database was effected on user-friendly computer software. The free fields for data entry were constructed for the repository of inpatient information on admission-related data, such as socio-demography, medical diagnosis, clinical indicators, and medications. Subsequently, this was supplemented with inpatient progress data concerning consultations, progress of clinical indicators, and interventions required, as well as changes in medication use, and eventual separation information upon discharge or death. Although a number of different patient criteria could be used to link a patient's data, the unique hospital or hospice patient number was used as the principal data link between layouts of data for storage and retrieval of information. |
