The purpose of this program is to develop a marketable, turn-key, computerized system for inputting and processing medical information related to prenatal, intrapartal, and neonatal (perinatal) events. Through this system it would be possible to produce accurate, timely, and complete prenatal data and analyses. Potential outputs of the data system include production of an automated birth log, birth certificate, hospital discharge summaries, registries of high-risk or birth defect-affected newborns, and perinatal mortality/ morbidity reports. Other uses would be for quality control and cost containment. Multihospital aggregates of such uniform perinatal data will yield regional or network summary data which is indispensable for public health planning and evaluation.Methodology consists of mechanisms for automated collection, encoding, and analysis of birth data with formatting and production of appropriate reports. During Phase I, it is expected that feasibility and value of The Perinatal Data System for a hospital can be demonstrated. During Phase II, a refinement of the approach and implementation in a Perinatal Region/Network would be expected.Commercial applications would be for hospitals; for regional health care, peer review, and planning agencies; and for State and Federal Agencies.National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
