Sedation records: TRACS electronic database.

The volume of data that should be recorded before, during and after a conscious sedation procedure makes accurate and complete manual recording impractical. Unless the data is in a structured electronic format, subsequent analysis is extremely difficult. The TRacking and Analysis of Conscious Sedation electronic database (TRACS) is designed to overcome these problems. The user is guided through the recording procedure, which follows the Guidelines for Conscious Sedation in the Provision of Dental Care. This, together with the 'Audit Trail' of events provided by TRACS could prove invaluable in the event of a legal or technical dispute. Since the information is in an electronic database, immediate analysis can be performed on both individual and groups of patient records. Provision has been made for records from many treatment centres to be consolidated thus enabling serious academic work to be performed on large numbers of records.