Integration of non-standard data systems in an electronic patient record

The development of data systems in most hospitals has lead to heterogeneous data systems. This is also the case at the Maastricht University Hospital. The department of Cardiology and the department of Cardio Thorax Surgery wanted to overcome the difficulty to share data between different departments. It was decided that the systems of both departments had to be combined. After a thorough data analysis, a system to synchronize the data was developed. Now the cardiologist can read letters from the surgical department at the moment they become final. On the other hand surgeons can provide from the data gathered by the cardiologist.