医療情報のためのデータベース言語MUMPS

抄録

The trend towards DBMS in the 1970's and the development of MUMPS as a user and problem oriented programming language for data management in health care environment are discussed, putting the needs for the two in contrast.
Stress is laid on the facts that clinical knowledge on individual patient is best created through tireless and repetitive inquiry mediated by MUMPS interaction with history data-base, and that the hierarchical sparse array technique of MUMPS is well suited for recording and recalling patient histories, analytical data, and tables of diagnostic codes. The growth and activities of the MUMPS User's Groups (U. S., Europe and Japan) and the achievements of the MUMPS Development Committee are detailed.
The MUMPS Standard is introduced in some detail. Creation of Kana character handling syntax is the top priority in the implementation of MUMPS Standard in Japan. Possible future MUMPS implementations and development of MUMPS environment in small and large scale institutions including microprocessors are reviewed on the basis of current literatures.