New approaches in Philips ECG database management system design

Electrocardiogram (ECG) databases play an important role in medical research, pharmaceutical research, medical education and health care. Due to growing demands in research, training, and health care, designing and managing such ECG databases has become a complex problem. This paper reports on the new design approach and the new application model of the Philips ECG Management System (EMS). The Philips EMS is designed not only to store and manage ECG data, but also to automate the ECG workflow, to facilitate the ECG editing and confirmation process, to compare the serial ECG recordings, to capture and store auditing information, and report the serial ECG changes, and most importantly, to communicate with other systems, such as hospital information systems etc. The patient demographic and clinical data and ECGs are managed by a relational database. The system allows authorized users to access ECG data, ECG measurements and ECG interpretation in data format that is written in extensible Markup Language (XML), and to retrieve clinical cases for research and education by simple structured query language queries. In summary, the Philips EMS provides a powerful and easy-to-use tool to support research, education, and ultimately, to enhance patient care.