Computer-based animal record system in a nonhuman primate colony.

A relatively inexpensive microcomputer system was developed to store and manipulate clinical and pathologic data from a large colony of nonhuman primates. The programming for the system was designed so that the computer instructs users, who may have no knowledge of programming, how to enter data of all kinds and how to to command it to answer any ad hoc queries about the data. Minimum input from a professional programmer is required. As many as 4 investigators may use the system simultaneously by means of satellite terminals located in several areas throughout the facility. Most alphabetic data are coded, using 2- or 3-digit codes. More complex diagnostic data are coded, using the numeric codes of the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine. presently, 17 record types encompasses all data entered into the computer. The system is functionally designed and about 50% operational at this time. This is the first description of an animal medical data system designed to exploit the lower costs and increased power of commercially available microcomputer packages.