Abstract

Optical Mark Reader forms have been used by the Cardiac Department at St Thomas's Hospital for six years to store clinical and haemodynamic data by computer. Forms are completed by clinical staff in outpatients and also for those patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation. Three documents are used to record the symptoms and signs at the clinical consultation, the results of relevant investigations, and the important findings at cardiac catheterisation. These documents are fed into a computer and data from them, together with a limited quantity of types information, are used to produce full clinical reports for our colleagues and the case notes. There reports have saved much secretarial and medical time. A variety of analyses is available for research and management purposes.