The chronic disease data bank-the ARAMIS experience

The authors provide an overview of the American Rheumatism Association Medical Information System (ARAMIS), a national database and database management system containing parallel longitudinal clinical data sets from 17 rheumatic disease centers. 22 000 patients and 183000 observation time points are represented. The database contains measures of five dimensions-death, disability, discomfort, iatrogenic, and economic-and subdivisions of each dimension that provide a measure of the impact of the disease. The database management system is the MEDLOG time oriented database statistical software system. It runs on MOS-DOS-compatible microcomputers MEDLOG's file limits and abilities are described, and future directions for ARAMIS and MEDLOG are briefly covered.<
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