Sharing acute myocardial infarction databases through the internet with MySQL and PHP: A web-accessible database for clinical research networks

In order to establish collaborations between different clinical research networks, a Web-accessible database was set up at the Hospital Clenico Universitario of Valencia (Spain), adapted to the analysis protocol and monitoring of patients who have undergone an acute myocardial infarction. Designed mainly with MySQL 5 and PHP, it offers several advantages when compared to either FileMaker or MS Access, namely a greater security in data access, low cost, compatibility and portability, and accessibility with the different operating systems and computer architectures. The application allows different operations including, among others, making arithmetic calculations and logical operations on the records related to the magnetic resonance study variables. Currently, it contains data of about 150 patients and in the future it is expected to contain up to 500 patient data to work with.