A low cost, customised anaesthesia information management system: An evolving process.

Abstract

Traditional techniques of record keeping in most hospitals include manual entry in case sheets and then adding to piles of paper files.[1] Although gradual transition towards automated and computerized record systems is in place, it is still a distant prospect in many peripheral institutes and low resource hospitals. An anaesthesia information management system (AIMS) is an electronic record system that allows collection, storage and presentation of patient data during the peri-operative course.[2] Our institute is a research oriented referral institute and we have designed a low cost model of an AIMS, which can be customized to local needs. We briefly describe the process and evolution of this recording system in our anaesthesiology department and operation theatre complex, its effect on the staff including the doctors, nurses and technicians and how it can be incorporated on a wide scale to other institutes and hospitals, where modern, automated and technology heavy systems[2,3] will take time to establish.