[A ten years' experience in the use of a mini-computer system in real time in a clinical biology department (author's transl)].

The objective of this retrospective survey is a mini-computer system conceived ten years ago to treat all numerical information coming from a hospital unit of clinical biology. The options that we chose for its function remain valid on at least two patients: the necessity, for the hardware, to dissociate the treatment of information from the listing of voluminous files (the former should be done in the real time, using a mini-computer system situated inside the department, and the latter should be done in differed time, using a more sophisticated machine situated in a common computer center); the necessity, for the software, to use a common global system, but it cn be cut down to suit the particular need of individual user with whom there should be a permanent collaboration. The results obtained during this time are discussed. They seem sufficiently positive to invite a appraisal re-examination of the use of such systems (in spite of some disenchantment at present), in the light of new possibilities from present progress in shared time computer system.