Prior to my employment, three teams from a hospital coalition helped to define the specifications needed for a database to be used to acquire and organize patient data for research purposes. A pilot database was implemented using a local area network and Microsoft Access as the database platform.
I arrived during a period of transition. Pediatric Informatics, a new, six-month-old division in the hospital, had recently assumed responsibility for taking the project to its next level. They intended to use a software firm off-site (India) to develop an Oracle database and Internet Explorer “front-end” enhanced with Java-based code.