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Clinic Support - DARWIN Applications

The DCI DARWIN Applications track detailed medical information on thousands of patients through all the phases of renal failure: pre-dialysis, treatment by hemodialysis, treatment by peritoneal dialysis, and transplantation. It allows its users to keep track of mortality and morbidity for purposes of reporting and quality management. Designed by a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, nurses, medical records staff, and software developers, DARWIN is a web-based application built upon a powerful relational database (Microsoft® SQL Server™ 7.0), which stores every aspect of a patient’s treatment from orders through billing and receivables.

One of the most powerful features of DARWIN is the ability to "link" various portions of the patient’s medical record to the patient’s major problems. This problem-based medical record allows the doctors and nurses to record and the physician’s orders into the system and relate them to the appropriate problem. The physician can review their orders in the system and record an electronic signature for them. The execution of the orders is tracked in the system as well. The physician can evaluate the execution of the orders by reviewing the results in the system through notifications that are received when the results are entered into the system. As part of the physician’s evaluation, they can write a progress note in the application. The goal of continued DARWIN development is a comprehensive electronic medical record for DCI’s patients.

The DARWIN database is a powerful tool for routine patient care as well as medical research. The system offers over 400 medical reports. In addition, users can extract and analyze patient information in any form they wish, using standard PC tools, such as Microsoft® Access.

The DARWIN Applications are designed for a large dialysis organization serving multiple sites. Based on common architectural components, such as Windows NT® and Microsoft SQL Server, the system is scalable from small four station clinics to large 100 station operations.

For more information, please see the following sections:

• Applications
• Future Plans