Exploring a hospital-wide database: integrating statistical functions with ClinQuery.

Routinely collected clinical data are a valuable source of information for clinical epidemiology, health services research, and outcomes research. To explore, graph, and analyze such a large amount of material easily, one needs three kind of tools: a database management system, graphic displays, and statistical software. Although commercial software packages with these three functions do exist, it may be difficult to find one that fulfills the multiple requirements of a large hospital, allowing researchers to use the hospital information system to study various hypotheses. To address this issue we have integrated new exploratory modules with ClinQuery, a user-friendly computer program for online searching of clinical data. In this paper we describe some of the newly implemented graphics and statistical functions, along with practical examples of the way they may be used.