Abstract:
The objective of this research is the development of a Medical Object Library (MOL)
consisting of reusable, inheritable, portable, extendable C++ classes that facilitate rapid development of medical software at reduced cost and
increased functionality. The result of this research is a library of class objects
that range in function from string and hierarchical file handling entities to high
level, procedural agents that perform increasingly complex, integrated tasks. A system
built upon these classes is compatible with any other system similarly constructed
with respect to data definitions, semantics, data organization and storage. As new
objects are built, they can be added to the class library for subsequent use. The
MOL is a toolkit of software objects intended to support a common file access methodology,
a unified medical record structure, consistent message processing, standard graphical
display facilities and uniform data collection procedures. This work emphasizes the
relationship that potentially exists between the structure of a hierarchical medical
record and procedural language components by means of a hierarchical class library
and tree structured file access facility. In doing so, it attempts to establish interest
in and demonstrate the practicality of the hierarchical medical record model in the
modern context of object oriented programming.
Keywords:
Programming Tools - Object Orientation - Medical Software - Medical Record
