Session P7B.2

Sharing Acute Myocardial Infarction Databases through the Internet with MySQL and PHP: A Web-Accessible Database for Clinical Research Networks

S Carrasco, R Sanz, D Moratal, V Bodí, JJ Rieta*

Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Valencia, Spain

In order to establish collaborations between different clinical research networks, a web-accessible database was set up at the Hospital Clínico Universitario of Valencia (Spain), adapted to the analysis protocol and monitoring of patients who have undergone an Acute Myocardial Infarction. It is located within an Intranet in order to be consulted by research authorized staff. Designed mainly with MySQL 5 and PHP, it offers several advantages when compared to either FileMaker or MS Access, namely a greater security in data access, low cost, compatibility and portability, and accessibility with the different operating systems and computer architectures.
First of all, database was created by using InnoDB engine, allowing a fully relational model design and assuring integrity of data. The application allows different operations including, among others, entering, editing, searching and viewing data and making arithmetic calculations and logical operations on the records related to the magnetic resonance study variables (perfusion, delayed-enhancement). We may also find records with data concerning the ST segment, leukocytes, enzymes, catheters, genetics, etc... It is worthy of emphasis that the data export module makes possible the creation of files for a subsequent statistical data processing. In that way, it is possible to keep anonymity of the patient. Security and access are checked via authentication scripts, which set the rights for each user on access and level of data editing.
Currently, it contains data of about 150 patients and in the future it is expected to contain up to 500 patient data to work with. It is a user-friendly tool that can be modified and extended in time using any free web technology such as PHP, CSS or XHTML, among others.

(Abstract Control Number: 281)