New Century Wellness Group offers a holistic approach to healthcare with an emphasis on preventive medicine as well as traditional medical care. In your role as an IT consultant, you will help New Century develop a new information system.

Background

Based on your presentation to New Centurys partners, they decided to move forward with in-house development of a new business support system. They liked the idea of a vertical software package, but they want to be able to customize the user interface because New Centurys business functions are more varied. However, it is very important that the new system allow future integration with vertical packages such as electronic health records, computerized provider order entry, and a clinical decision support system.

Using the information you gained in the systems planning and analysis phases of the SDLC, you sit down to begin designing the user interface of the New Centurys business support system. Before you begin, you decide to review the case studies, DFDs, and object-oriented diagrams you prepared in Chapters 5 and 6.

Tasks

1. Using the guidelines and suggestions in this chapter, design a user interface. Draw storyboards, then use Microsoft Access or another form-designing application to create the screens (you may use Microsoft Paint, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.).

2. Determine the data required for a new patient. Design an input source document that will be used to capture the patients data and a data entry screen to enter the information into the system.

3. What control features will you use in the input screens to aid in data entry? Give a specific example of how you will use at least eight different control features in the design of the user interface.

4. In addition to printed reports, what other output technologies could be used by New Century?