ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: This paper reviews the development of the field of medical informatics in Latin America. It also describes the results of a computer-based data management system, named AGUSTINA, which is comprised of maternal and infant data on 7570 deliveries that occurred between June, 1990 and December, 1996 in a hospital in the surroundings of Buenos Aires, Argentina. These data were fundamental for the instrumentation of preventive community-oriented activities in the area. Finally, this paper describes recommendations for future actions in the area of medical informatics in Latin America. ABBREVIATIONS: PCR: perinatal clinical record; CLAP, Centro Latino-Americano de Perinato-logia; WHO, World Health Organization; PAHO, Pan-American Health Organization; E-Mail, electronic mail; WWW, world wide web; FTP, file transfer protocol.
Subject(s)
Databases, Factual , Perinatal Care/statistics & numerical data , Pregnancy Outcome/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Argentina/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Infant Mortality , Infant, Newborn , Perinatal Care/standards , Pregnancy , Total Quality ManagementABSTRACT
This paper reviews the development of the field of medical informatics in Latin America. It also describes the preliminary results of a computer-based data management system, named AGUSTINA, which is comprised of maternal and infant data on 6195 deliveries that occurred between June 1990 and December 1995 in a hospital in the surroundings of Buenos Aires, Argentina. These data were fundamental for the instrumentation of preventive community-oriented activities in the area. Finally, this paper describes recommendations for future actions in the area of medical informatics in Latin America.
