Computer-aided Fracture Diagnosis and Classification Package Embedded in the Integrated Electronic Patient Record System

Abstract

Fracture is the most common disease in orthopedic clinic. In order to facilitate the process of fracture diagnosis and to offer guidance in determining the optimal fracture treatment method, there developed many different kinds of fracture classification system both for clinical practice and research. However, it is difficult for orthopedic surgeons, especially for young surgeons to memorize each definition of the fracture classification and to determine the related treatment method when they interpret patient’s fracture radiographs.

The purpose of this paper is to present the newly developed computer aided fracture diagnosis and classification software package, which was embedded in the integrated electronic patient record system. The developed software covered over 700 fracture classification categories, provided the search engine for fracture type and suggested treatment method, supported statistical function and database management function for clinic practice.

The primary evaluation of the developed software package showed that, especially for young orthopedic surgeons, the system accelerate the time of the process of fracture diagnose, improve the accuracy for determining the patient-specific fracture treatment, as well as gradually normalize the fracture diagnose and treatment.