Datagraph-med© Help 4.30

There are many ways for quality control in refractive surgery. A careful follow up on treated patients, well documented in patient files is the first step and usually done in every refractive clinic. In addition many refractive surgeons use commonly available software such as MS-Excel to get a better overview on outcomes of their surgery. Some even go a step further and incorporated a more appropriate database software such as MySQL, FileMaker, FoxPro or MS Access to enter and analyze data. But very few actually succeeded in making their own customized database and outcomes analysis software. This is simply because it requires excellent programming skills and experience in making it work. The amount of time and after all - money - which needs to be spend for an own, clinic specific database application is substantial.

Its clearly the better choice to use commercially available outcomes analysis software such as Datagraph-med© 4.20. Started in 1998 as engineers tool to refine laser nomograms it became one of the most popular software tools for refractive surgeons. Now used in more then 50 countries and hundreds of refractive clinics around the world.

Datagraph-med uses a relational database software from Microsoft called 'Access'. 'Relational' means that data is stored in several tables which are linked with each other using certain 'index fields'. These tables keep general patient data sperate from follow up data or wavefront data for example. The advantage of a relational database systems is that the amount of stored data is smaller compared to an excel spread sheet. Follow up data fields are added to your database only at the moment data is entered. The relational database structure also helps to avoid collecting redundant data.

The main feature of Datagraph-med is however the instant generation of 'presentation graphs' which are always updated as soon as new data is being entered. Fully integrated in MS Office 2010 (and former versions down to Office 2003) it becomes possible to prepare lectures and PowerPoint Presentations 'on the fly' (to the next congress!).

An other important feature of Datagraph-med is the separation of the actual data file (called 'back end') from the database application software (called 'front end'). By doing this one can have different database files for different patient groups and backup or transfer your data easily and independent from the Datagraph software itself. The data file can be stored on a server and accessed from several users at the same time.

Database structure of Datagraph-med.