Digitisers: their use in the entry of orders, urinalysis results, and isoenzyme interpretation in a clinical biochemistry computer system.

The processes of order entry, urinalysis result, and isoenzyme interpretation entry into a laboratory computer system is a time consuming activity. We have designed a series of forms for use with a digitising pad that allow us rapidly to enter orders, urinalysis results, and isoenzyme interpretative comments into our laboratory computer system. We have shown that digitiser entry is always significantly faster than manual entry. Although there are many devices available to facilitate computer entry, we believe that the digitiser technique is an attractive option because of its ease of use, speed, reliability, and low cost.