WinCHIP

Version 2.8

Getting Started Manual

2
WinCHIP
Windows Computerized Homeopathic Investigation Program
Version 2.8, January 2001

Copyright (c) 1988-2001

H.M.S. Homeopathic Medicine Software

P.o.Box 15
22010 Carate Urio (CO) Italy
Telephone ++39-31-401333
Fax ++39-31-401333
E-Mail: carlorez@tin.it

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from Homeopathic Medicine
Software.

RADAR, Microsoft, MS-DOS, MS-Windows are registered trademarks

2
 3
Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................... 3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................. 4
FOREWORD..................................................................................................... 5
AUTHOR’s PREFACE .................................................................................... 10
Introduction..................................................................................................... 13
Installing WinCHIP ......................................................................................... 14
Installation Procedure .................................................................................. 14
System requirements .................................................................................... 15
Security key ................................................................................................. 16
What is WinCHIP............................................................................................ 17
What kind of information can I store using WinCHIP ? ............................... 18
How is such information presented and organized ? ..................................... 19
What else can I do using WinCHIP ? ........................................................... 22
What can I find in the Professional version ?................................................ 23
A guided tour in WinCHIP .............................................................................. 24
Starting WinCHIP........................................................................................ 25
Windows conventions .................................................................................. 27
WinCHIP conventions.................................................................................. 29
Working with a database window................................................................. 34
Activating the other windows....................................................................... 37
Importing a repertorisation .......................................................................... 45
Working with the text editor ........................................................................ 49
Printing ....................................................................................................... 52
Querying...................................................................................................... 56
Creating a new catalog................................................................................. 63
Other sources of information............................................................................ 64
Appendixes...................................................................................................... 65
Appendix A : toolbar buttons ....................................................................... 65
Appendix B : Function keys (Accelerators) .................................................. 67
More accelerators available in patient windows ........................................ 68
Appendix C : Working safely with WinCHIP............................................... 69
Appendix D : The WinCHIP versions .......................................................... 70

3
4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to express our deep gratitude to Jacques Imberechts,
who helped us with his teaching, advice and friendly criticism.

We also would like to thank the following people:

Eugenio Candegabe
Carlo Cenerelli
Jean Fichefet
Enrique Gonzales Peirona
Charles O. Kennedy
Guy Loutan
Alfonso Masi Elizalde
Joseph Reves
Proceso Sanchez Ortega
Philippe Servais
Frederik Schroyens
Jeremy Swayne
Marinella Tagliabue
George Vithoulkas

and all the Friends and Colleagues of Homoeopathia

Europea/Homoeopathia Internationalis

In Memory of:

Irene Bakas
M.L.Dhawale
Donald McD. Foubister
Mario Garlasco
Tomas Pablo Paschero
Pierre Schmidt

4
 5
FOREWORD
When in the 1970's with Albert Pladijs and some friends we started a
homoeopathic study group, we did not suspect the magnitude of the
task we had undertaken which was confirmed in the years to come.
The motivations that brought us together were far from being
homogeneous; we wanted to study together and were fed up with
storytellers and second-hand information. We wanted to work on the
original texts and compare facts without having to rack our brains or
perform intellectual acrobatics.

The Belgian homoeopathic community was still very small and only a
few well-heeled colleagues could pay for the trips that led them to the
four corners of the earth to participate in the work at international
congresses. The local, regional and national meetings let us down to a
great extent in the sense that they seemed to be just an excuse for
everybody to show the success of a more or less spectacular clinical
case and that homoeopathic treatment, in spite of "official"
condemnation, did assist some patients to some extent. Our major
preoccupation was as much to remain faithful to the Hahnemannian
principles as to the materia medica, to which we sought access via
Kent's repertory in order to make up for our lack of memory.

It did not take us long to realise that the repertories did not coincide
with the pure materia medica. They contained information from other
sources and to a large extent from clinical experiences.

It was at this time that I became interested in clinical experiences and

I began to review the "Leaders" of Nash. Whoever could find by
what way Nash came to prescribe his remedies or could understand
the "Testimony of the Clinic" was very clever indeed.

I searched all over the world in order to find out how our forebears
used their clinical experiences to find the remedies for their patients.

What a let down!

5
6

My experience with pathological anatomy had already disillusioned

me after seeing the illegible scribble that our colleagues used to fill
their medical files. The medical files of our homoeopathic
predecessors were not much better and were often worse. They were
full of unintelligible abbreviations, with no mention of the guiding
symptoms, omitting all observations, no notes justifying the final
choice and rarely containing a comprehensible report on the
subsequent evolution of the patient after having taken the remedy, the
choice of which remained mysterious

It is these unhappy experiences that made me insist during the

numerous meetings of Homoeopathia Europea on the importance of
the preparation of a homoeopathic patient file which would contain
complete and meticulous annotations as well as the detailed reasoning
that led to the choice of the remedy and the follow up of the patient
after the remedy had been taken.

A few of us therefore accumulated over the years clinical patient files

which were bulky and eventually became paper monsters which, at
some point in time, we would have to analyse to find the weak points,
confirm or verify the symptoms taken and analysed and the changes
in such symptoms caused by the remedies prescribed.

The THREE CLINICAL RECORD-BOOK SYSTEMS, used to note

the details of the clinical case taken in surgery, has been instituted in
the various study groups for many years already.

They are designed in order to find our cases according to points of

DOCTRINE, either in relation to a REMEDY or a MATERIA
MEDICA, and, last but not least, to indicate or find a syndrome, a
symptom or particular pathology.

They are kept on an irregular basis.

6
 7
Obstacles remained: the handwriting was too often illegible,
annotations still not complete, reasoning left out, non-existent follow
ups and the mass of accumulated information unable to be analysed by
pen and paper as well as by the amount of time necessary to study
then compare what the clinical files contained, even when (and
especially when) they were meticulously kept.

The only valid and detailed study of the failures and successes was
practically impossible as long as the information was over abundant,
bulky and copious.

And then came computers.

This barbaric, despotic and technocratic instrument irritated our

intuitive tendencies. But the introduction of Kent's repertory onto the
computer made us see that this technology had its advantages.
Finished were the long columns of repertorisations, finished were the
elaborate comparisons of materia medica allowing the differential
diagnostics of remedies. Occasionally finished too were the lesser
syndromes of maximum value, but that was more a question of
personal discipline of the doctor who should not use his computer
repertorisation program as a hold-all out of which he would get some
run of the mill polychrests with no clinical results.

My lamentations continued on the difficulties in obtaining a valid

collection of complete symptoms, gathered by practitioners having
had a homogeneous formation, accumulated in a legible manner,
which could be exchanged and analysed and whose conclusions could
be easily interpreted and used for the progress of Homoeopathy based
on clinical facts and not on speculations which depended upon the
more or less good quality of individual memories. It was Enrique
Gonzales of Zaragosa who said to me one day that he was preparing a
program for the registration of clinical cases that would "wipe away
my tears".

7
8
At the same time Carlo Rezzani and his friends in Milan had a similar
idea which led to the creation of the program CHIP which I have been
asked to introduce in this preface.

The COMPUTERIZED HOMOEOPATHIC INVESTIGATION

PROGRAM (C.H.I.P.) is the accomplishment of 20 years of effort in
order that the clinical experience, which is growing and accumulating
through the consultation of homoeopaths all over the world, is no
longer lost to future generations and does not go with the
homoeopath into his tomb when he dies. This was the case with the
clinical experience of James Tyler Kent, Julia Green, Pierre Schmidt,
Tomas Paschero, Mitrachandra Dhawale, Albert Pladijs and of many
others. All that remains are some anecdotal experiences contained in
a few books, which were written when the author found the time
necessary for such a time consuming job and had a good enough
memory to pass on correctly what he had experienced.

It is impossible here to mention all the work involved in the

technological learning process that forms the basis of the
COMPUTERIZED HOMOEOPATHIC INVESTIGATION
PROGRAM (CHIP). I must offer the acknowledgement and
appreciation of the worldwide homoeopathic community to those
who have spent days and nights to become competent in computer
technology, who have confronted technological information and
opinion which often borders on approximation, and who have spent
their savings on technical equipment and who continue to refine and
develop this tool which has finally provided the means to allow
complete and exhaustive analysis of the clinical experience of others.
I also offer my appreciation to those who will have the foresight and
desire and who will take the time to become equipped so that their
clinical experiences will not be lost. Thereby for the greater benefit of
Homoeopathy and patients who will get the most from this
therapeutic knowledge which will be placed at our disposal by the
database of clinical information of the COMPUTERIZED
HOMOEOPATHIC INVESTIGATION PROGRAM.

8
 9

Jacques Imberechts MD, FF Hom

President of Homoeopathia Europea and Internationalis
President L.M.H.I.

9
10

AUTHOR’s PREFACE
Over the past years, after presenting WinCHIP in congresses and
homeopathic schools, I’ve often been asked to explain in more detail
the motivations that led to this project. The release of version 2.5 of
WinCHIP seems the best occasion to satisfy this request. I know it
would be impossible to explain the whole cultural background that
exists behind the project, but I will try to stress the fundamental
aspects.

Some information can be found in the foreword by Jacques

Imberechts, to whom I owe my personal growth as a homeopath and
endless support to the WinCHIP project.

This project began in 1986 in the Lycopodium group of Homeopathia

Europea, with the presentation in Namur of the first protocol, based
on paper, to collect clinical cases.

At that time, as computers began being used in homeopathy, our

group had three main ideas:

? ? The first was to use computers to automate our everyday work, in

order to find information about our patients more quickly and to
verify the effectiveness of our cures.
? ? The second was to standardize the way in which clinical data was
collected, in order to be able to compare our experiences. This
was the first outline of a true database.
? ? The third, and perhaps the most important one, was to find a way
to store and transmit the clinical reasoning made by a doctor when
he prescribes a given remedy.

We understood that we were not trying to put information into a

computer that was already clearly organized; we were starting
instead to look for a set of rules to organize a new field of
information.
10
 11
We were thus facing both problems with computers, which were often
solved by new technology, and problems about doctrine and
philosophy, whose solution was sometimes hard to find. We found
that the clinical data on a homeopathic consultation could be divided
into two main groups:

? ? Objective data, such as the patient’s symptoms, the diagnosis, the

remedy, the potency, the dilution scale, the other therapies and the
reaction to remedy.
? ? Subjective data on the doctor’s reaction, which is rarely
considered, such as the symptom analysis and its valorization, the
therapeutical intent, the repertorisation type, the materia medica
which is used, the prescription explanation, the explanation of
potency and dilution scale and the expected prognosis.

We were thus starting an analysis of the clinical methods of all the

most important homeopathic schools, understanding the common
aspects and the differences among them.

The first goal, i.e. to automate the collection of clinical data in order
to better store the information about our patients, was reached with
the definition of default values and pick lists, which allow the rapid
encoding of this information and guarantee its uniformity. Besides,
because the values stored in the pick lists are the result of 13 years of
work done by the groups of Homeopathia Europea, they offer to the
doctor a wide choice of values for better expressing what he thinks.
This information, being clearly codified, can be easily found by fast
and powerful research functions. In this way the doctor can obtain a
precise feedback from his work.

The second goal, i.e. the project of creating a true database of cases
from different doctors, is now ready to start. All information can be
sent to Homeopatia Europea and International, who will analyze and
store it. The Internet site is http://www.HeHi.org.

11
12
The third goal, i.e. to record the method used by the doctor, has been
implemented in WinCHIP with the case analysis function. Using this
function, the doctor can make an analysis of his clinical method, and
can rebuild the path that led to a given prescription. Using WinCHIP,
the doctor does not simply use a computer to store his clinical data;
he also uses an educational tool that helps him in better defining his
homeopathic practice.

It is very important to stress the fact that the use of a disciplined

method in clinical practice is both a very important means to achieve
success in therapy and an essential element for using a database
effectively. In this respect, we believe that WinCHIP can really play a
fundamental role, contributing to the enrichment of the homeopathic
doctrine and philosophy.

After a few days of work with WinCHIP, every homeopath will

understand how this tool (for which the computer program is only a
particular aspect) is important, and will consider it as essential.

I wish that every single user benefit enormously from WinCHIP and
invite him to participate in this project with new ideas and
suggestions. I’d also like to thank the Archibel team and all the
dealers, in particular Patrick Carton and Rene Otter, who have
supported the project.
In particular, I’d like to thank Lorenzo Vandoni, who has created the
computer program following my directives, my wife Marinella, who
encouraged me in this hard job, and Jacques Imberechts, “spiritual”
father of this project.

Carlo Maria Rezzani

Via Diaz, 3 I-22010 Carate Urio
1st May 1999

12
 13
Introduction
Welcome.

WinCHIP (Windows Computerized Homeopathic Investigation Program) is a

software product which runs in MS-Windows, and is intended to help the
homeopathic specialist in keeping trace of his work, recording Patient
Information, Consultations, Repertorisations, as well as data on Symptoms,
Remedies and Case Analysis.

Using WinCHIP, you can store two kinds of data: structured data and
unstructured data. Structured data is kept in fields, such as Patient Name or
Consultation Date and is intended to help promote a systematic method of
working. The more information inserted in these fields, the more useful the tool
will be. Unstructured data can be inserted using a text editor and can be used to
record personal notes about a patient, a consultation, a repertorisation, and so on.

WinCHIP manages three types of information: Patient Archives, which store

information about the patients, consultations and repertorisations; Utility
Archives, which can be used to keep clinical observations and an address book,
and Pick list Archives, which are lists containing the values for many of the
WinCHIP fields, such as Pathologies, Remedies, and so on. This information can
be inserted, browsed and modified from several different windows, whose structure
and semantics will be explained in the following chapters.

Information can be printed in certain formats and you can also preview reports
before actually printing them. Also included is a powerful research facility,
which allows you to select data satisfying a given set of conditions.

WinCHIP can be used together with Archibel‘s RADAR for Windows program,
enabling you to import and export repertorisations from one program to the other.
We believe WinCHIP will be very useful in your homeopathic practice and
suggest, in order to get the most out of the program, that you read carefully the
following subsections, which explain WinCHIP's different characteristics.

The subsequent chapters of this manual provide an introduction on each of the

features of the program. A more detailed description can be found in the help on-
line, which you can activate from WinCHIP by pressing the F1 key.

13
14
Installing WinCHIP
Installation Procedure

A) Installation from diskette

Installing WinCHIP is very simple, as the installation procedure is completely

automatic. Insert the first diskette in the disk drive of your computer and proceed
as follows :

? ? If you use Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11, choose the command File | Run in
the Program Manager menu. Type a:\setup (or b:\setup, if your floppy drive is
b).
? ? If you use Windows 95, click on Start, choose the Run command and then
type a:\setup (or b:\setup, if your floppy drive is b).

Then follow the instructions which appear on screen. You will be asked, for
example, to insert the other diskettes as needed.

B) Installation from CD-ROM

See the Radar installation manual

14
 15
System requirements

In order to run correctly WinCHIP, your computer should be equipped with the
following:

Minimum requirements
? ? IBM-PC compatible computer, 80386 or higher
? ? MS-DOS 5.0 or higher
? ? MS-Windows 3.1 or higher
? ? 40 MB of free disk space on your hard disk
? ? 8 MB of RAM
? ? VGA video adapter

However, in order to obtain the maximum from WinCHIP, you might want to
install a Super VGA video adapter, providing a resolution of 800x600 pixels or
higher. This means that you can see the whole window without needing to use
the scrollbars. It is also better to install WinCHIP under Windows 95 as, although
WinCHIP will run under Windows 3.1, it is much more efficient under Windows
95, where you can open several windows at the same time without any problem.
The suggested requirements are summarized in the following list (of course, the
more powerful your computer, the better for all your applications, including
WinCHIP).

Suggested requirements
? ? IBM-PC compatible computer, 80486 or higher
? ? MS-Windows 95
? ? 40 MB of free disk space on your hard disk
? ? 16 MB of RAM
? ? SuperVGA video adapter

15
16
Security key

In order to run WinCHIP, you need to install the security key.

The installation is very simple: just connect it to the parallel port of your computer
(the one which you normally use to connect a printer to your computer).

If you have a printer connected to your computer, disconnect it, then plug the
security key into the parallel port and connect the printer to the security key.

Please note that WinCHIP will not run without the security key.

16
 17
What is WinCHIP
This chapter contains a detailed list of all the features of WinCHIP. Some of these
features will be also examined in the Guided Tour contained in this manual. All
of these features are covered in detail by the help on line. Also, the different
features are separated according to their availability in the Starting, Medium and
Professional version of WinCHIP.

The purpose of this chapter is to let you learn easily what you can do with
WinCHIP and how to get the most out of this powerful tool. You will not find
here explanations on how to do things, the emphasis being on the description of
what WinCHIP is capable of.

17
18
What kind of information can I store using WinCHIP ?

The kind of data that can be used and stored in WinCHIP is classified as shown in
the diagram below. The rectangles represent the different types of data and the
lines between them the relationships. The symbols, "1" and "N", shown beside
the lines, indicate the type of relationship between two given data types. For
example, a 1-N (one to many) relationship exists among patients and
consultations, meaning that you can record several consultations for each patient.

Apart from this kind of information, which mainly refers to your patients, you can
also make notes, store clinical records and a personal address book.

18
 19
How is such information presented and organized ?

The information in the diagram on the preceding page is arranged into various
different windows. You can open several windows at the same time and thus be
able to view and modify the different kinds of data at the same time. Here is the
list of windows:

A) FIRST ARCHIVES GROUP

? ? Administrative data window. This window gives administrative information

about your patient, such as his or her name and date of birth.

? ? Personal information window. This window gives information on marital

status, profession, race etc.

? ? Billing information window. This window gives the details about the patient's
bill

? ? Personal history window. This window gives information on the patient’s

history.

? ? Vaccinations window. This window gives information on the vaccinations the

patient has received.

? ? Family history window. This window gives information on the patient’s

family. Here you can store and retrieve information on the different pathologies
from which relatives of your patient have suffered.

? ? Consultations window. This window gives information about a consultation

and the diagnosis that you have made. A separate text editor is also available in
order to let you make notes about the consultation.

? ? Case analysis window. This window is very useful for analyzing the
consultation and lets you record the reasons for your choice.

? ? Consultation summary window. This window gives a list of all the

consultations for a given patient. It is useful for obtaining a quick look at all the
information recorded about that patient.

? ? Repertorisations window. This window presents information on

repertorisations, symptoms and remedies. Repertorisations can be made using
Radar for Windows. With WinCHIP you can then import the repertorisations from
19
20
Radar and associate them with your consultations and make different kinds of
statistical analyses.

? ? Biological examinations window. This window gives information on

biological examinations and their results.

20
 21
B) SECOND ARCHIVES GROUP

? ? Utility windows. These are three windows that give data on each of the utility
archives, they are called: the notes archive, the clinical record book and the
address book.

C) THIRD ARCHIVES GROUP

? ? Pick list windows. These windows allow you to modify the contents of the
pick list archives. These lists, which may be modified by you, contain the values
for many of the WinCHIP fields, such as Pathologies, Remedies and so on.

21
22
What else can I do using WinCHIP ?

WinCHIP allows you to do many things with the information you encode, other
than simply storing and retrieving it. The different possibilities include:

? ? Printing. You can print information about your patients and your
consultations. Each time you want to print something, you can choose exactly
what kind of information you would like to be printed.

? ? Previewing. Before actually printing out the information on paper, you can
preview the printed page on your computer.

? ? Searching. You can search for information which satisfies given conditions,
such as all patients living in New York, or all consultations for which you have
prescribed the same remedy. The information thus chosen can then be displayed
on screen or printed.

? ? Specifying environment options. WinCHIP lets you configure your working

environment in several ways. You can choose the date format, whether to activate
the balloon help, whether or not you want to be asked for confirmation before
saving information, etc...

? ? Printing prescriptions. When working on a consultation, you can print out

the prescription by simply clicking with the mouse.

? ? Specifying the reaction to remedy. For each consultation, you can specify
observed values for the reaction to a remedy. The specified values will then be
displayed graphically making them easy to view and examine.

? ? Making a backup copy of your data. For safety, you can always make a
backup copy of your data. Refer to the appendix “Working safely with WinCHIP”
which explains how to make this backup copy.

22
 23
What can I find in the Professional version ?

The Medium version of WinCHIP contains everything needed to support the

work of the homeopathic specialist. The Professional version, however, contains
some very useful additional features, which are listed as follows:

? ? Repertorisation tools. Several tools are available for helping you in

evaluating the contents of a repertorisation. The first tool helps you in quickly
finding and positioning a given remedy. The second depicts graphically the
evolution of several remedies at the same time.
? ? Printed repertorisations. You can print the contents of a repertorisation
exactly as you see it in the Repertorisation window.
? ? Customizable field names. Several windows include free fields that you can
use to store additional information about a patient or a consultation. In the
professional version you can assign names to these fields, in order to remember
their meaning more easily.
? ? Powerful research engine. The research engine included in the professional
version is much more powerful than the one included in the medium version. It
allows you to specify additional types of conditions enables you to make queries
on several tables at the same time.
? ? Configure the window size and dimensions. Each window will be opened at
exactly the same position and size as you left it. This allows you to configure your
working environment to your own requirements.
? ? Configure the fonts. You can choose the font of your text editor which will
be the same for the printed reports.
? ? Password. You can protect your data with a password which is required for all
users of WinCHIP.
? ? Field options. For every database field in WinCHIP, you can define the
configuration of the associated pick list and specify a default value.
? ? Network. You can share the same WinCHIP database with several computers
connected in a network and create new network stations.

WinCHIP is a complete tool but it is also an ambitious project. Therefore new

tools will be available in future versions. The work is in progress: keep in touch
with us.

23
24
A guided tour in WinCHIP

This chapter describes how you can use WinCHIP to perform basic and advanced
operations. Topics include common conventions used for Windows applications,
specific conventions used in WinCHIP and most of WinCHIP features. Please
remember that all topics are also covered in greater detail in the help on-line that
you can activate from WinCHIP using the F1 key.

24
 25
Starting WinCHIP

To start WinCHIP, double click on the following icon, which can be found in the
WinCHIP group of the Program Manager, if you use Windows 3.x, or in the Start
menu, if you use Windows 95:

When you start WinCHIP, you must wait a few seconds during which the
databases will be loaded and checked for errors. After this, a catalog of patients
will be opened (we will explain catalogs later in this chapter), and a window will
appear from which you can choose a patient.

Double click on the patient to select it and you are ready to start. After you have
selected your patient, two windows will be opened: the first window displays
information about the patient and is called the Administrative Data window; the
second window displays the list of consultations you have had with that patient
and is called the Consultation Summary window.

Before going into the details of these windows and of the other windows that
make up the working environment of WinCHIP, we will examine some common
conventions of Windows. If you are already familiar with the Windows operating
25
26
environment, this paragraph will probably not teach you anything new, if you are
not, it will provide you with a useful introduction.

26
 27
Windows conventions

WinCHIP is built to run under the MS-Windows operating environment. This

environment provides several common facilities for users, such as using the
mouse, some of which are covered in the following. For a more comprehensive
tutorial on using MS-Windows, please refer to your MS-Windows documentation.

The menu. The menu is displayed in the upper part of the screen from which you
access all WinCHIP features. The menu can be selected in three ways: (1) using
the mouse, (2) using the associated Hot Key and (3) using the associated
Accelerator.

The Hot Key of a menu item is the letter that is underlined in the menu bar and
which can be activated by pressing the ALT key together with the underlined
letter. For instance, the menu item File can be activated by pressing ALT-F.

The Accelerator, which is only defined for certain menu items, is a sequence of
keys which are displayed just after the menu command. Accelerators are
mnemonics keys, i.e. you can use them even when the menu command is not
visible. For instance, you can press ALT-F4 to quit WinCHIP, which corresponds
to activating the menu item File | Exit.

Many commands of the menu can also be quickly activated by clicking on a

toolbar button. The toolbar, which is displayed just under the menu bar, is
described in detail in Appendix A.

Moving between windows. As you can see when you start up, WinCHIP allows
you to work with several windows at the same time. You can, for example, move
from the administrative data window to the consultations summary window by
simply clicking on it with the mouse. There are several commands that you can
use to arrange the windows and they are all contained in the Window menu.

27
28

In the lower part of this menu, a list of all currently open windows is displayed,
allowing you to select any one of them. In the upper part a set of commands
permits you to arrange, tile or close open windows. Experiment with these
commands to become familiar with them.

Some common accelerators. There are some accelerators (keystroke

combinations) that are commonly available in all Windows applications and
therefore also available in WinCHIP. These accelerators are listed in the
following:

? ? Alt+F4. Exit WinCHIP.

? ? Ctrl+F4. Close the current window.

? ? Tab and Shift-Tab. Use these keys to switch between fields within a window.
In particular, the Tab key moves you to the next field, while the Shift-Tab key
moves you to the previous field. They are particularly useful when you are
inserting data such as the name and the surname of a patient: just type the name,
press Tab and the cursor will move to the next field, allowing you to insert the
surname. This key is new for most MS-DOS users who are accustomed to using
the Enter key to switch from one field to the next. In MS-Windows, the Enter key
is commonly used to activate a button, instead of clicking on it with the mouse.

? ? F1 Activates the on-line help.

A complete list of all accelerators can be found in appendix B.

28
 29
WinCHIP conventions

In addition to the MS-Windows conventions, all the WinCHIP windows have

some functions in common. We have grouped them together here and provided a
description as follows:

The toolbar. All database windows have a common toolbar used to browse their
contents, to insert new records and to delete old ones. The meaning of each of the
toolbar buttons is explained in the following:

This button sends you to the first record.

This button sends you to the previous record.

This button sends you to the next record.

This button sends you to the last record.

This saves the data you have entered. It will remain gray and disabled as long as
no modification has been made.

This button deletes the modifications you have just made. It will also remain gray
and disabled as long as no modification has been made.

This button will add a new record. For example, if you are in the consultations
window, it will add a new consultation. Once you have clicked on this button all
the fields will become empty, so that you can type in new information.

This button deletes the current record. Please note that deleted records are not
actually removed from the database. You can always recall deleted records. If you
wish, you can also compress your database to save space, removing deleted
records.

29
30

This button allows you to enter the default value for a given field. When typing a
field’s value, you can always press this button, or the F3 key, to insert its default
value. This button is automatically disabled when the default value for a field does
not exist.

30
 31
Pick list buttons. Pick list buttons allow you to open the list of all the values
available for a given field. To see the list, you can click on the Pick list button or
select the menu command Edit | Pick list or press the F2 key.

The Pick list gives you hints for selecting what to insert in a field. If you type in
a value that is not contained in the associated pick list, you will be asked to add
the new value to the pick list. This is not obligatory, but it is advisable to save
every new value in the pick lists, because having a fixed set of values for any
given field is very helpful for research purposes.

Clicking on any pick list button will open a selection window, in which all the
available values are displayed.

You can browse among the different values using the arrow keys or the arrow
buttons available in the lower part of the window. You can also type part of a
value in the text box positioned under the list in order to quickly select a given
value. For instance, in the above example, if you type c, then the first value
whose first letter is c, that is chronic case, will be selected. The sort by combo
box, placed at the left of the text box, allows you to sort the available values by
31
32
description or by code. The sorting order also affects the way in which the quick
selection is performed: for example, if you sort the pick list by code and then type
c, the first value whose code begins with c will be selected.

The three buttons that are displayed in the upper right hand side of the window
can be used, respectively, to confirm the current selection, to open a window in
which to insert new values for the pick list and to open the pick list’s text editor or
to write notes about a given value.

Default values. Default values are useful in that they allow you to rapidly specify
information that in most cases does not vary from one patient to the next.
WinCHIP provides three ways to assign default values, which are respectively,
default, default previous and default record.

A default value is simply a fixed value, that is the most common value for that
field (e.g. “mister” may be the most common title for a person). We have already
seen that you can push this button to assign a default value to a field,

which is available on each database window's toolbar. To insert a value you can
also select the menu command Edit | Default, or press the F3 key.

The default previous value for a given field is a value which has been assigned
“previously” to the same field. The meaning of "previously" can be different
depending on the currently selected window. For instance, for a consultation it
refers to the last consultation of the same patient. To assign to a field its default
previous value, you can select the menu command Edit | Default Prev, or press
the F4 key

The default record command serves to assign a set of default values to all the
fields of the current window. When available, this command can be activated by
clicking on a new toolbar button that will appear on the window’s toolbar, or
selecting the menu command Edit | Default Record, or by pressing the F5 key. In
the new toolbar button, the symbol of the window is covered by a flash. For
instance, the Billing Information window contains the following button.

which serves to assign to all the fields of this window the same values as the
corresponding fields of the Administrative Data window. The actual meaning of
32
 33
the default record button is different for each window. The detailed explanation of
its meaning for each window can be found in the help on-line, which you can
activate by pressing F1 in WinCHIP.

Status bar. The status bar is the bar which is displayed at the bottom of the
screen. It contains useful information that helps you keep trace of your work. On
the right hand side of the status bar, the age and code of your current patient are
displayed, as you can see in the following:

On the left hand side of the status bar, the name of the current patient is displayed
in a combo box that you can use to quickly switch to other patients.

This combo box can be used in combination with the keep patient in stand by
check box that you will find in the Administrative Data window. By clicking on
the little arrow placed to the right of the patient's name, you will have the list of
all the patients which have been kept on stand by, thus allowing you to select any
of them.

Accelerators. The most common commands can always be activated using the
keyboard, by means of special accelerator keys. Accelerator keys are listed in
Appendix B.

33
34
Working with a database window

We’ve seen that all WinCHIP windows share some common functions. In the
following, one of these windows will be used to explain how to perform the basic
operations in it. The same operations may also be performed in the other
windows, which will be quickly described in the following paragraph.

The window used to explain the basic operations is the Administrative Data
window, which opens when you start WinCHIP and is shown below:

In this window you can store basic information about your patients, such as their
name and their date of birth. We will now explain how to insert, modify and
delete a patient. We repeat that the same operations can be performed, in the
same way, in the other windows, to insert, modify and delete consultations,
biological examinations and all the other types of data that can be stored in
WinCHIP.

Browsing patients. The Administrative Data displays the data of one patient at a
time. To switch to another patient, just press any of the following toolbar buttons:

34
 35

Alternatively, you can use the following button, which will show you the list of all
patients from which you can choose one:

Whenever you select a patient using this technique, WinCHIP will adjust all the
related windows for you. For example, if the Consultation Summary window is
open, the selection of a different patient means that the consultations of that
patient will be displayed in the summary.

Inserting a new patient. To add a new patient, you must push the following
toolbar button:

Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl-I. All fields value will be cleared, and you
will be allowed to enter the field values for the new patient. To help you insert
new values, WinCHIP provides several pick list buttons and also allows you to
select the field default value (pick list buttons and default values were discussed in
the previous chapter).

To quickly insert a new patient, type his or her surname, then press Tab to move
to the next field in which you can type the first name and so on to the different
fields. You can also use the mouse to move quickly to a given field by clicking on
it.

When you have finished typing the field values for the patient, you can either
confirm the insertion or discard it. To confirm the insertion, you should press the
Save toolbar button, or press the Enter key:

To cancel the addition of the new record, press the Cancel toolbar button, or press
the Esc key:

Modifying an existing patient. To modify the information on your currently

selected patient, just overwrite it in the window. When you’ve finished, you can

35
36
either choose to save your modifications or to discard them, using the Save and
Cancel buttons.

Deleting an existing patient. To delete the currently selected patient, use the
following toolbar button:

Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl-D. Before actually deleting the patient,
WinCHIP will ask you to confirm this decision. Deleting takes place after
confirmation. The action of deleting also affects other records. This means that
deleting a patient will also cause the deletion of all his consultations,
repertorisations and so on.

However, deletions are never definitive and it is always possible to recall a deleted
patient with all his records. To recall a deleted patient, select the menu command
Tools | Recall Deleted Records. A window appears in which you are asked to
select the type of data you want to recall. Select the name corresponding to the
name of the window: for example, to recall a deleted patient, select option
Administrative Data.

It is also possible to remove physically all deleted records from your database,
using the pack tool. This can be useful to save space on your hard disk, but be
warned that once you have actually compressed the databases, you can no
longer recall deleted records. To compress a patient’s archives, select the menu
command Tools | Pack Data.

Closing the window. In WinCHIP you can have several windows open at the
same time and work with them all. However, it is better to keep open only those
windows that are you are actively using and to close all others. To close a
window, you can press the Ctrl-F4 key. Whenever you open a window in the
Professional Version of WinCHIP, you will find it in the same position as when
you left it.

36
 37
Activating the other windows

As we have seen, the basic operations that you can perform in a given window
are: switching among the available records, inserting a new record, modifying it,
and deleting it. Of course, the meaning of the term record varies according to the
window in which you are working and WinCHIP provides several different
windows.

How can you open these windows? There are three different ways. The first is to
click on a toolbar button. For example, the following button

is used to open the Administrative Data window (in Appendix A you can find a
complete list of toolbar buttons).

The second is to select a menu command. For instance, the menu command that
is used to open the Administrative Data window is View | Administrative Data |
General Information. All the commands that are used to activate patient windows
can be found in the View menu, while commands that are used to activate the
utility windows and the pick list windows can be found in the File menu.

The third is to type an accelerator. For example, the accelerator used to open the
Administrative Data window is Shift-F1 (in Appendix C you can find a complete
list of available accelerators).

If you select a window which is already open, by any one of these methods, it will
simply be selected and placed in front of the other windows.

So far, we have only seen the Administrative Data window, which contains basic
information on patients. Now we will introduce the other windows (for a more
complete explanation of their contents, please refer to the help on-line).

Personal Data window. In the Personal Data window you can insert personal
information about a patient. This window can be accessed by selecting the menu
command View | Administrative Data | Personal Data or by pressing the
following button of the main toolbar:

37
38

This window can be used to store additional information on your patients, such as
marital status, the number of children, profession, and so on. Of course, you are
not obliged to fill in this information for any of your patients. However, we
remind you that the more information you insert, the more the tool will be useful
to you.

Billing Information window. In the Billing Information window you can encode
administrative information about a patient which can be used later for billing and
fiscal purposes. This window can be accessed by selecting the menu command
View | Administrative Data | Billing Information or pressing the following button:

It contains information about the person who will be paying the bill for the
consultation. In most cases that person is the patient him or herself. For this
reason, WinCHIP provides the following button, corresponding to the F5 key
(default record)

which, when pushed, simply copies the patient’s data into this window, so that
you do not have to type it in twice. In addition, this window also has a button for
printing the bill.

Personal History window. In the Personal History window you can insert
information on the patient's mother and his/her childhood. This window can be
opened either by pressing the following toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command View | Personal History or by pressing the

Shift-F2 key. In this window you can encode information on the length of
gestation, the delivery, the weight at birth, the Apgar score, and so on.

Vaccinations window. In the Vaccinations window you can insert information

on the patient's vaccinations. This window can be accessed by selecting the menu
command View | Personal History | Billing Information or by pressing the
following toolbar button

38
 39

Each record in this window corresponds to one vaccination of your patient. If

you want to store information on more than one vaccination, add new records, as
already explained, using the

button. For each vaccination, you can store information on the date it was given,
the problems it caused , the evolution and additional notes.

Family History window. In the Family History window you can insert
information on your patient's relatives. In particular, you can store data about
recurrent pathologies in the patient's family. This window can be opened either by
pressing the following toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command View | Family History or by pressing the Shift-
F3 key. Please note that each record in this window represents a particular
pathology affecting a particular relative. If you want to store information about
another relative or about different pathologies that have affected the same
relative, you will have to add a new record each time, using the technique already
explained.

Consultations window. In the Consultations window you can add information

about a consultation. A separate text editor is also available in order for you to
record notes about the consultation. This window can be opened either by pressing
the following toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command View | Consultations or by pressing the Shift-

F5 key. This window is perhaps the most important one in WinCHIP, and you
will spend most of your time working in it. For this reason, let us examine it in
greater detail.

39
40

In the upper part of the window there are three fields showing, respectively, the
date of consultation, the time and the patient’s age at the moment the consultation
took place. When you insert a new consultation, the date and the time are set, by
default, to the current date and time. The patient’s age is a computed value which
you cannot modify.

Just below you can see an area in which you can type your own notes or you can
open the text editor using this button (the use of the text editor will be explained
in the paragraph Working with the text editor):

Beneath the area in which you can make notes, you will see a box in which you
should type the diagnosis made during the consultation:

The box can be used as follows: you may specify different diagnoses for the same
consultation, two of which will be displayed simultaneously on screen. To see
the other diagnoses, use the scroll bar placed on the right hand side.

To insert the values of the first diagnosis of a consultation, click on one of the two
pick list buttons of the first row and choose an appropriate value for the diagnosis
and the trend; to insert a new diagnosis, scroll the list of diagnoses until an empty
one is displayed in the second row and then use the pick list buttons which are
available for this row; to delete a diagnosis, click on the delete button placed
aside the skip buttons, paying attention to the fact that the delete button deletes
the diagnosis displayed in the first row.

The other consultation fields are available under the diagnosis and can be used
just like the fields in any other window, using, if you like, the pick list buttons.

40
 41
There is one more button worth being noted, that is the following:

This button allows you to print either a prescription, a bill or a letter of referral
for your patient. When you choose to print a prescription, a window will be
opened in which you will see the values for some of the fields of the consultation
(the remedy, the potency, the dilution and the posology). If you want, you can
modify these values directly and you can also specify a placebo by checking the
following option:

To complete this window, you can also specify a header and a footer note. Click
on this button to start the printing process:

Firstly a preview window will be opened in which you will see the page exactly as
it will be printed so that you can make any modifications before actual printing.
Printing and previewing will be covered in more detail in the paragraph Printing,
later on in this chapter.

Case Analysis window. In the Case Analysis window you can insert in detail the
reason and basis of your diagnosis of the current consultation. This window can be
accessed by selecting the menu command View | Consultations | Case analysis or
by pushing the following toolbar button

In this window you can insert information that will be useful for research, such as
why you have prescribed a given remedy, or what you expect the reaction of the
patient will be.

Consultation Summary window. This window gives a summary of all the

consultations of a particular patient and is always displayed when you start
WinCHIP. It can be opened either by pushing the following toolbar button

41
42
or by selecting the menu command View | Consultation Summary or by pressing
the Shift-F4 key. The consultations are displayed in a grid, in which each row
represents a different consultation and each cell displays the value of a given field
of the consultation.

In the lower part of the window, you will find a scrollbar.

Using the scrollbar you will see more columns which display more information
about the consultations.

Repertorisations window. The Repertorisations window allows you to consult the

repertorisations you have imported using the Radar Link and which will be
discussed in the paragraph Importing a Repertorisation, later on in this chapter.

Biological Examinations window. In the Biological Examinations and Tests

window you can insert data relevant to examinations and their results. This
window can be opened either by pushing the following toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command View | Biological Examinations and Tests or

by pressing the Shift-F9 key. Each record in this window represents one
examination. If you want to store several examinations for your patient, insert a
new record each time, using the new toolbar button.

Utility windows. Utility Archives are intended to help you to store additional
information about your patients and your work. There are three such archives.

The Clinical Observations window contains data on clinical observations made

about your patients. This window can be opened either by pressing the following
toolbar button

42
 43

or by selecting the menu command File | Open Utility Catalogues | Clinical

Observations. The Clinical Observations window allows you to write notes from
your practice about doctrine, materia medica and repertory.

In the Address Book window you can encode such information as addresses and
telephone numbers. This window can be opened either by pushing the following
toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command File | Open Utility Catalogues | Address Book
The Address Book window allows you to create your own address book within
WinCHIP.

The Everyday Notes window contains generic annotations. This window can be
opened either by pushing the following toolbar button

or by selecting the menu command File | Open Utility Catalogues | Everyday

Notes The Everyday Notes window allows you to record any kind of note.

Pick list windows. As we have seen in the paragraph WinCHIP Conventions,

Pick lists are lists of values that can be opened using a pick list button. WinCHIP
provides several of these lists and also lets you modify and enhance them.

To open a pick list archive, you must select the command File | Open Pick List. A
list containing the names of all pick list archives will be displayed and you should
select one of them.

43
44

When you confirm your selection, a window will open in which you can edit the
values of the selected pick list. This window is similar to all the other windows we
have seen up to now, so you can use its toolbar buttons to insert and modify the
pick list values.

Pick lists can only be partly modified. You can always add a new value to a pick
list and you can delete or modify the values that you have added. However, you
cannot modify predefined pick list values. Predefined pick list values are a
copyright of H.M.S., with the following exceptions: predefined pathologies, which
are copyright of OMS, for ICD10 codification and copyright of H. Lamberts, M.
Wood and Inge Hofmans-Okkes, for ICPC codification; predefined remedies,
which have been encoded by Archibel in the Synthesis Repertory.

44
 45
Importing a repertorisation

Repertorisations are displayed in the Repertorisation window. This window can be

opened either by pressing the following toolbar button:

or by selecting the menu command View | Repertorisations or by pressing the F8

key. This window is read-only. i.e. you can consult a repertorisation, but you
cannot modify it. Repertorisations can be performed and modified only in Radar
and then imported into WinCHIP. To import a Radar repertorisation into
WinCHIP, just export it from Radar and Winchip will be automatically opened.

You will be asked to confirm the importation and then you will see it displayed on
screen exactly as it was displayed in Radar.
Note: in order to import a repertorisation into WinCHIP, you must first create it in
Radar and then export it from Radar into WinCHIP. To do this, Radar provides a
WinCHIP icon. For more detailed information about using Radar, please refer to
the Radar documentation.
Note: pressing the import button is not necessary in most cases because all
exported repertorisations are automatically imported whenever you switch from
Radar to WinCHIP.

The Radar link will only be activated once you have made a consultation for the
currently selected patient. This is because every repertorisation is linked to a
consultation. Please note that when you import a repertorisation from Radar, it
will automatically be linked to the current consultation.

After you have imported a repertorisation and stored it in WinCHIP, you can then
export it again to Radar if you want to make any changes. To do this, just press
the following toolbar button:

After modification, you will have to run Radar again in order to re-import the
exported repertorisation.

45
46

We have said that repertorisations are displayed in the Repertorisations window.

This window is displayed in the above figure.

Let’s examine the window starting from the toolbar. The buttons on the left are
the same as those in all the other windows, the only exception being that the new
button is not present. This is because repertorisations can only be created by
importing them from Radar.

The other buttons are described below:

This button serves to see the names of the symptoms in your own language (more
precisely in the national language you have selected in Radar). If you press it
twice, the symptoms will be displayed in English.

By clicking on this button you will have an explanation of how to use the VES.

46
 47

By clicking on this button you can see a graphical representation of remedies. A

window will open on whose left side you will see a list of all the remedies that
came up in any of the repertorisations of the selected patient. You can select up to
10 remedies and see graphically how they have evolved over time (for instance,
you can see if a remedy, that was considered amongst the best choice in the first
repertorisation, has proved itself a good choice in subsequent ones).

Clicking on this button will create a copy of the current repertorisation (i.e. the
one that you can see in the repertorisation window) and associate it with the
current consultation (i.e. the one that is currently selected in the consultations
window). However, it will only do so if the repertorisation in question is not
already linked to the current consultation. In both cases, you will receive a
warning and be asked for confirmation.

This button allows you to change the format in which the repertorisation is
presented.

Clicking on this button will enable you to copy the list of symptoms of the current
repertorisation into the corresponding consultation's text.

The edit field, that is also contained in this toolbar, serves to quickly select a
given remedy in a repertorisation. Type a short description in the edit field placed
in the second toolbar of the window and then press the Tab key. The chosen
remedy, if present in the repertorisation, will be immediately highlighted. If you
prefer, instead of typing the name of the remedy, you can press the pick list button
on the right side of the edit field and access the remedy pick list.

Just below the toolbar, the method used in the repertorisation and the relative
notes are displayed.

The most important part of the repertorisation, however, is the area positioned
under these values which displays the actual contents of the repertorisation, in a
very similar way to Radar. The repertorisation is displayed using one row for
each symptom and one column for each remedy. You can use the two scrollbars,

47
48
positioned at the bottom of this area to see more remedies and to see the full
names of the symptoms. To browse the repertorisation, you can use the arrow
keys once you have selected the radio button, which is visible on the left. To
select the radio button, you should press Alt-U (Up).

Finally, the bottom most part of the repertorisation window contains a grid which
can be used to see, at the same time, all the repertorisations which you have done
for the current patient. To browse the list of repertorisations, you can use the
arrow keys once you have selected the radio button which is visible on the left
of the grid. To select the radio button, you can press Alt-D (Down).

48
 49
Working with the text editor

The text editor is a window where you can insert unstructured information which
is useful when making long descriptions of consultations, notes, etc. The text
editor can be activated by pushing the

button. You will find this button in every database window which has some
unstructured information associated with it. Alternatively you can select the Edit |
Open text menu command or press the F6 key. In all cases, the text editor will let
you edit the information related to the currently active window. For instance, if
the window you are working in is the Consultations window, pressing the F6 key
will result in opening the text of the consultation.

Several text editor windows can be opened simultaneously, to edit different

information at the same time, such as the text of a consultation and the text of a
case analysis. When you close the text editor, the information that you have typed
will be automatically saved, or you will be asked to save it, depending on how you
have configured the settings.

The text editor features a toolbar which contains several buttons whose functions
are explained below:

The Save button can be used to save your work without closing the text editor.

The Cancel button can be used to cancel the modifications you have made.

The Cut button can be used to cut the current selection, i.e. to remove it from the
text and store it in the clipboard from where it can be retrieved using the Paste
button.

The Copy button can be used to copy and store the current selection in the
clipboard from where it can be retrieved using the Paste button.
49
50

The Paste button can be used to retrieve text stored in the clipboard by pasting it
back in the text editor at the point where the cursor is blinking.

This button, which is only available in the consultation text editor, allows you to
change the presentation format of the information displayed in the upper part of
the window. In particular, information about a previous consultation or the list of
symptoms of the associated repertorisation can be displayed.

This button, which is only available in the consultation text editor, can be used to
see the list of diagnoses made during the current consultation.

The text editor of the Consultation window contains some additional features not
provided by the other text editor windows. First of all, in this window you can see
the text of two consultations, that is, the current consultation and the previous one,
so that you can easily copy the text of the previous consultation into the new one.
Moving the mouse on the black line that divides the two consultations, you can
widen/narrow the text area so as to see more or less of each.

In the upper part of the window you can see information about the previous
consultation (date, diagnosis, remedy, etc..), so that you can more easily identify
and remember it. You can also select former consultations and view the
information by using the scrollbar placed on the right.

50
 51
The keyboard can also be used to do the same thing. Use the F6 key to open and
close the text of the previous repertorisation; the Alt+PgUp and Alt+PgDown keys
to switch between the text of the current and previous consultations; the Alt+N
and Alt+P keys can be used to select former or more recent consultations.

51
52
Printing

WinCHIP provides a comprehensive selection of choices for printing data, also

enabling you to preview page(s) beforehand.

To print your data you can either select the File | Print Preview or File | Print
menu commands, or press one of the two following toolbar buttons:

When you choose to print, or preview, information using one of the above
commands, a window pops up in which you can choose to create a new print
format or load a previously saved print format. The window is displayed in the
following figure:

Print formats are used to define the way in which you want information printed.
Suppose that you want to print, each evening, a summary of all the consultations
that you have made. Once you have defined the print format you require for this
information, it can be selected from the list of available print formats by pressing
the

button. In this case, the report will be immediately printed, or previewed. To

create a new print format, press the
52
 53

button. Before pressing this button you should consider whether or not to save the
print format that you are going to define. It is best to save print formats that you
plan to use regularly. To save a new print format, check the Save new print
format option and give it a short description.

When you decide to create a new print format, you are requested to specify what
your report should look like. To define the format you will be asked a series of
questions which you must answer. Firstly, you must specify the report type,
choosing between List type (fields are printed in sequence), Tabular type (fields
are printed in columns) and Labels, which are only available in WinCHIP
Professional. In the window where you choose the report type, you can also
choose whether only the current record (i.e. the current patient, or the current
consultation) will be printed, or all the available records (i.e. all patients, or all
the consultations of the current patient). Then you must specify one or more
tables, which contain the data to be printed. If you select more than one table,
they will be printed in sequence, i.e. the data of the second selected table will be
printed after the data of the first selected table. Then, for each selected table, you
must specify one or more fields. The selection of certain fields and not others will
affect the information that will be printed. For example, you can choose to print
the patient's name and surname, but not his birth date.

At this point, if you have chosen to preview your data, you will see the report on
screen exactly as it will be when printed.

53
54

The two scrollbars, available at the bottom and on the right of the area in which
the report is displayed, allow you to view the whole page. The four buttons,
available in the lower part of the window, allow you to view each page of the
report. The three buttons, available in the upper right part of the window, allow
you to change the window's appearance and characteristics. The Option button
allows you to change the default printer and page orientation (portrait or
landscape); the Zoom button allows you to change the window's zoom factor, in
order to see the whole window, or only a part of it; the Print button will actually
print the report.

If you have chosen to print or pressed the Print button in the preview window, you
will see a new dialog window, whose exact appearance and characteristics depend
on the printer you have installed. In general, this dialog window will allow you to
print the whole report, to print only some pages, or to print to a file instead of on
the printer. Printing to a file is very useful if you do not have a printer connected
your computer. A file will be created, which will contain all the properties of the
printed document so it can be printed later, even on a computer without
WinCHIP, by using a simple MS-DOS command. Please refer to your MS-DOS
documentation for more detailed information.

In addition to the standard printing features, in WinCHIP you can also print a
letter for all your patients. Select the command File | Print Letter to Patients. A

54
 55
text editor window will open in which you can write and print the letter. Just type
<Name> and <Surname> in the place of the real name and surname of a patient.
By clicking the Print button the letter will be printed for all your patients.

55
56
Querying

With WinCHIP you can search for information having some common factor, for
example all patients living in a certain town or all consultations that took place
after a certain date. This information can then be quantified, displayed on screen
or printed out. To open the research window, select one of the three commands
available in the Search menu, which will allow you to search for information in
the Patient Archives, the Utility Archives or the Pick list Archives. Alternatively,
you can click the following toolbar button:

Once you have selected one of these commands, you will see the Load Research
window, which contains a list of predefined queries. You can choose either to run
one of these queries, or to create a new one. In particular, you can use the
following buttons:

This button runs the selected query and immediately shows you the
result. This is the simplest way to use WinCHIP’s research function.

This button allows you to modify the selected query before running it.
For example, you may decide to add a field or to sort the result in a
different way. You can read a detailed explanation of how to modify
a query later on in this chapter.

Create a new query.

Delete the selected query, which will be removed from the list of
predefined queries.

If you choose to create a new query or to modify one already defined, a research
window appears (see below). The window is divided up into several pages. Each
page contains instructions to perform one particular step of the query (research).
You must provide the information requested and then press the Next button to go
on to the next page. When you have filled in all the pages, press the Finish button
to see the result of your query. However, you do not have to complete every page
before starting your query. The Finish button can be activated from any of the
56
 57
pages, starting with the second one. On each page, you can also press Back to
return to the previous page and change the information that you encoded there.

On the first page you can choose whether to open a query that has been previously
saved or to create a new one. A query can be saved on the last page, either by
exporting it to an Excel, database or text file, or by clicking on the "save query on
disk" button.

If you choose to create a new query the program will ask you to select one or more
tables whose fields you want to be displayed. For example, if you want to see all
the remedies given to each patient, you should select tables Consultations (because
the remedy is specified in the consultation window) and Administrative Data
(because the patient’s name and surname are in the adminstrative data window).
The selection of more than one table is only available in the professional
version of WinCHIP.

Important note: when you select more than one table, the result of the query will
contain as many items as the most specific table. If you select, for example, the
Consultation and Administrative Data tables, the query will determine how many
consultations satisfy the specified conditions. For example, if you specify the
condition "name=Bill", the result will list all the consultations you have had with
patients whose name is Bill.

57
58

On the second page you can choose the fields you want to see displayed. On the
left, you can see the names of the tables that you have selected. On the right you
can see the list of all the fields of the selected table. You can choose one or more
of these fields, to be displayed as a result of the query, by clicking on each of
them. In addition to the names of the tables, the list on the left contains a
<<dynamically computed fields>> item which, when selected, allows you to
display some special values, which are computed by the research engine, as well
as normal field values. For example, in first diagnosis: there is no first diagnosis
field anywhere in the database, but WinCHIP can compute it for you and let you
know what was the very first diagnosis for each patient.

When a field is selected, its name appears in the lower half of the window in the
Fields to be displayed area. You will find this box and the Conditions and
statistics box, displayed on all pages where they provide a quick look at the
choices you have made. The buttons to the right of these boxes allow you to
change your selections.

When you press the lower button, a new window pops up in which the lists of the
selected fields are displayed, together with two big arrow buttons. To change the
order of the fields, select one of them and click on one of the two buttons to
change its position in the list.

58
 59

The third page allows you to specify the research conditions. You can either
choose to Select one ready-to-use research condition or Specify a new custom
condition.

In the first case, you must simply select one of the available research conditions
displayed in the list. You may see many of them, or one, or none, depending on
the tables you’ve selected on the first page.

If you select the second option, you will see that the page changes layout, to
display a set of list and buttons which allow you to specify the new condition. The
different zones are explained as follows:

Select table
Here you will find a list of tables. Select the one for which you want to
define a condition. For example, if you want to consider only cases of nux
vomica, you should select the Consultations table because remedies are
stored in this table.

Select field
In this list select the field for which you want to define a condition. For
example, if you want to consider only cases of nux vomica, you should
select the Remedy field.

59
60
Select operator
Select the operator for your query from this list. For example, if you want
to find all patients born after 1st January 1970, you should select the
operator greater than.

Select right operand

In this field you can type the value which will be tested by the condition.
For instance, if you wish to select all your patients living in London, you
should type London here.. There are three other ways to insert a value in
this field, by means of the three following buttons.

Pick list button

This button lets you open the pick list associated to the field for which
you are setting the condition. Please note that not all fields have an
associated pick list.

Default button
This button lets you get the default value associated with the field for
which you are setting the condition. Not all fields have an associated
default value. If the field does not have an associated default value, you
will be warned when pushing the Pck button..

Fld button
This button opens a list of all the fields of the same type as the field for
which you are setting the condition. For example, if the field is a
character field, such as the Surname, you will see a list of all character
fields, such as the Name, the Town, etc... You can use this button to
express conditions such as "find all patients who live in the town where
they were born".

The OK button can be used to add the new condition to the set of defined
conditions, displayed in the Conditions and Statistics box. If this box is empty, the
new condition will be confirmed. If not, you will be requested to select which
kind of logical operator should link the currently defined conditions with the new
condition. For example, you ask for all patients living in London or in
Cambridge to be selected, or you can ask for all patients that live in London and
were born before 31st December 1970 to be selected. Please note that two
conditions linked by an and operator are used to indicate that both conditions
must be verified, while conditions linked by an or operator are used to indicate
that at least one condition must be verified. The logical operators you can use
are: and, and not, or and or not, where the not modifier is simply used to express
the opposite of some condition (e.g. all patients not living in London).

60
 61

On the fourth page you can create statistics. In order to do this, WinCHIP will
create a temporary database to store the result of the query. This is necessary
because the database must be manipulated in order to extract statistical
information. The query process will be slowed down by the creation of the
temporary database.

To create statistics you should check the Count frequency of each occurrence
(Frequency Analysis) box.. WinCHIP will then count and display the frequency
for each record that satisfies the conditions. For instance, suppose you wanted on
screen all Patient Surnames and Remedies for patients aged more than 50. The
frequency analysis will inform you how many times you have prescribed a
particular remedy to a particular patient.

On this page you can also select a field on which the result of the research will be
sorted. For example, you can sort patients by their name or surname. This
function is only available in WinCHIP Professional.

61
62

The fifth and last page allows you to save the result of the query in many different
formats.

There are two buttons placed in the upper right hand corner of this window. The
first can be used to save the query on disk. The second button when pressed will
do a Frequency Analysis and will display a graphical representation of the
frequency of each record found.

62
 63
Creating a new catalog

Until now, you have worked on a sample set of patients. Of course, you would
now like to try storing information on your own patients, possibly discarding the
sample information. This is possible because catalogs have been created with the
precise purpose of allowing you to create different categories of patient.

A Catalog is a database which contains information about a certain category of

patient and is stored in a pre-defined directory of your computer. All Catalogs are
stored in subdirectories of the directory \WINCHIP\FILEPATI. WinCHIP comes
with two pre-defined Catalogs: USER, which is an empty catalog and SAMPLE,
which stores sample information. Therefore, you can decide either to add records
to the USER catalog or you can create a new one, giving it the name of your
choice.

To create a new Catalog, select the menu command File | New Patient Catalogue.
You will be prompted for a directory name and a short comment. The new catalog
will be stored in the directory \WINCHIP\FILEPATI\<dirname>, where
<dirname> is the directory name you have specified.

To open a Patient Catalogue, select the menu command File | Open Patient
Catalogue and select one of the proposed catalogs (for each one, the name of the
directory in which the catalog is stored and a short description are displayed).

63
64
Other sources of information
This manual has been written with the aim of providing basic information for
using WinCHIP. In order to obtain more detailed information for each function,
you can activate the help on-line, by pressing the F1 key. This key is context
sensitive, which means that when you press it, the help on-line will open on the
page corresponding to the current WinCHIP window.

If you are not familiar with how a help on-line can be consulted, just press the F1
button when the help on-line window is open and you will get more explanations.

For any other kind of information you can contact H.M.S. at:

H.M.S. Homeopathic Medicine Software

P.O.Box 15
22010 Carate Urio (CO) ITALY
Tel. ++39-31-401333
Fax. ++39-31-401333
E-Mail: carlorez@tin.it
Web Site: http://www.chipwin.com

64
 65
Appendixes
Appendix A : toolbar buttons

The Toolbar is displayed under the menu bar, and contains a sub-set of the menu
commands. They are in fact the most commonly used commands, which are
easily recognizable thanks to their pictorial representation. They can be activated
by clicking on them with the mouse. Users of the Professional version of
WinCHIP can customize their toolbar by adding or removing buttons. Only
buttons which are available in all versions of WinCHIP are described below.
Other buttons are described in the help on-line.

This button is used to create a new patient.

This button is used to select a patient already created. When pressed, the
list of all patients is displayed from which you can select one.

This button can be used to open the Administrative data window. This
function can also be activated using the Shift-F1 key.

This button can be used to open the Billing Information window.

This button can be used to open the Consultation Summary window. This
function can also be activated using the Shift-F4 key.

This button can be used to open the Consultations window. This function
can also be activated using the Shift-F5 key.

This button can be used to open the Reaction to remedy window. This
function can also be activated using the Shift-F7 key.

This button can be used to open the Graphics window.

65
66

This button can be used to open the Repertorisations window. This

function can also be activated using the F8 key.

This button allows you to define network options.

This button allows you to switch to Radar (if the Radar program is open).

This button is used to print a report.

This button is used to import a repertorisation from Radar. The

repertorisation must have been created and exported using Radar before you can
import it. This function can also be activated using the Alt+F10 key.

This button is used to export a repertorisation to Radar. The

repertorisation can then be imported in Radar. This function can also be activated
using the Alt+F7 key.

This button can be used to activate and deactivate the balloon help.

66
 67
Appendix B : Function keys (Accelerators)

Accelerators are keystroke combinations that can be used to quickly activate the
most common WinCHIP functions. Many accelerators correspond to functions
that can be activated using the menu. They are noted on the right after each menu
item. Other accelerators correspond to functions that can also be activated using
the mouse. Here is the list of accelerators, available with WinCHIP:

Menu accelerators:

Ctrl+S Save data of current window

F9 Switch to Radar (if already open)
Ctrl-P Print Patient Data
Alt-F10 Import a repertorisation from Radar
Alt-F7 Export a repertorisation to Radar
Ctrl-O Open patient catalogue
Alt-F4 Exit from WinCHIP
Ctrl-X Cut text within the Text Editor
Ctrl-C Copy text within the Text Editor
Ctrl-V Paste text within the Text Editor
Shift-Ctrl-T Find text within the Text Editor
Shift-Ctrl-S Replace text within the Text Editor
F2 Open pick list for selected field
F3 Insert default value for selected field
F4 Default Previous for current window
F5 Default Record for current window
F6 Open text editor for current window
Ctrl-I Insert a new Record
Ctrl-D Delete the current Record
Shift-F1 View Administrative Data
Shift-F2 View Personal History
Shift-F3 View Family History
Shift-F4 View Consultation Summary
Shift-F5 View Consultations
Shift-F6 View Case analysis
Shift-F7 Open Remedy Reaction window
Shift-F8 Open Graphic of Reaction to Remedy
Shift-F9 View Biological Examinations and Tests
F8 View Repertorisations
Ctrl-F6 Switch to next open window

67
68
Common Windows Accelerators

Tab When in insert or overwrite mode, moves to next field

Shift-Tab When in insert or overwrite mode, moves to previous field
Ctrl-F4 Close current window
F1 Open help on-line
Ctrl-Tab Move to next patient window

More accelerators available in patient windows

Enter Confirms the inserted data

Escape Cancels the modifications
Up Arrow Go to previous record
Down Arrow Go to next record
Page Up Go back 10 records
Page Down Go forward 10 records
Ctrl-Page Up Go to first record
Ctrl-Page Down Go to last record
Left Arrow In a grid, move the cursor to the left cell
Right Arrow In a grid, move the cursor to the right cell
Ctrl-Left Arr. In a grid, move the cursor one page left
Ctrl-Right Arr. In a grid, move the cursor one page right
Home In a grid, move the cursor to the leftmost cell
End In a grid, move the cursor to the rightmost cell
Ctrl-Home In a grid, move the cursor to the leftmost cell
Ctrl-End In a grid, move the cursor to the rightmost cell
Alt-U (Up) In the repertorisations window, selects the repertorisation
grid
Alt-D (Down) In the repertorisations window, selects the list of
repertorisations

68
 69
Appendix C : Working safely with WinCHIP

WinCHIP allows you to get the maximum from your work by providing you with
the ability to store, retrieve, search and print all kinds of information about your
patients and your consultations.

The bigger your WinCHIP database, the more it becomes important and useful to
you. Because personal computers are never totally secure, please read and take
note very carefully of the following information:

1. Make a backup copy of your database. The Tools | Backup command

enables you to make a backup copy of your database, which you can restore with
the Tools | Restore command. These commands are only available in the
Professional version of WinCHIP. If you have the medium version, however, you
can easily make a copy of your database by saving the contents of the directory in
which the WinCHIP catalogue is stored on diskette. We suggest you make a
backup copy of your database at the end of every working day.

2. Rebuild indexes. If your database appears to be corrupted (this can occur due
to a hardware failure of your computer), rebuild the database indexes using the
Tools | Rebuild Indexes menu command.

69
70
Appendix D : The WinCHIP versions
The following table describes the differences between the three versions of
WinCHIP:

S = Starting
M = Medium
P = Professional

FUNCTION DESCRIPTION S M P
GENERAL FUNCTION
Work in different work area Yes Yes Yes
Modify the names of free fields Yes *1 Yes *1 Yes
Patient information on status bar Yes Yes
Reminder Yes Yes
Keep patient on stand by Yes
Network function Yes Yes

PATIENT ARCHIVES (FIRST GROUP OF ARCHIVES)

Administrative Data Window Yes Yes Yes
- see list of all patients Yes Yes Yes
- Personal Data Window (window in Yes Yes
administrative data)
- Bill Information Window (window in Yes Yes Yes
administrative data)
Personal History Window Yes Yes
- Vaccinations Window (window in Yes Yes
Personal History)
Family History Window Yes Yes
Consultations Window Yes *5 Yes Yes
- pick list for types of consultation Yes Yes Yes
- browse all diagnoses within a Yes Yes
consultation
- age of patient in consultation windows Yes Yes
- automatic date and time Yes Yes Yes
- pick list other therapies Yes Yes
- indication of general reaction Yes Yes Yes
- indication of general reaction, modification Yes Yes
of diagnosis

70
 71
- indication of general reaction, modification
of diagnosis, subjective feeling and Yes Yes
repertory symptom
- Case Analysis Window (window in Yes Yes
Consultations)
Consultation Summary Window Yes Yes Yes
Biological Examinations and Tests Window Yes Yes
Repertorisations Window Yes Yes Yes
- Scroll repertorisation Yes Yes Yes
- Tools working on repertorisation Yes
- Repertorisation Symptoms displayed in Yes Yes
English and national language

UTILITY ARCHIVES (SECOND GROUP OF ARCHIVES)

Clinical Observations Window Yes Yes
- automatic update from patient data Yes Yes
Address Book Window Yes Yes
Daily Notes Window Yes Yes

PICK LIST OPTION (THIRD GROUP OF

ARCHIVES)
Pick List Yes Yes Yes
Open Pick List from File Edit Pick List Yes Yes
Open Pick List from current Windows Yes *6 Yes Yes
Open text of Item Pick List Yes Yes
Automatic addition of new values to pick lists Yes Yes
Change order of item in pick list Yes Yes
View only ICD10, ICPC or personal additions Yes
in pathology pick list
Selection of families in Pathology pick list Yes

DEFAULT OPTION
Default value (F3 function) very few Yes Yes
implemented
Default previous (F4 function) not yet Yes Yes
implemented
Default record (F5 function) Yes Yes

PRINTING
Ability to print the contents of the databases Yes Yes Yes

71
72
Print columnar reports Yes Yes
Print labels Yes

Print the bill Yes Yes Yes

Print a letter of referral Yes Yes Yes
Print a letter to all patients Yes Yes Yes

Print Preview Yes Yes Yes

Page setup Yes Yes

TEXT EDITOR
Simple text editor like note pad Yes Yes Yes
Advanced text editor for the consultations (see
previous consultation typing the new one) Yes Yes
Modify the font of the text editor Yes
Automatic save every N minutes Yes

GRAPHICS
Graphical display of REMEDY REACTION for:
diagnosis and general reaction Yes Yes
Graphical display of REMEDY REACTION for: Yes Yes
repertory symptom, diagnosis, general
reaction and subjective feeling modification,
Graphical display of remedy evolution in Yes
repertorisations
Reaction to remedy displayed in English and Yes Yes
national language

DELETE - RECALL DATA

Delete patient partially or totally Yes Yes Yes

Query
Query on patient archives Yes *3 Yes *4 Yes
Query on utility archives Yes Yes
Query on pick list archives Yes Yes
Save and recall query Yes Yes
Operator for query
- equal to Yes Yes Yes
- different from Yes Yes Yes
- less than Yes Yes Yes

72
 73
- more than Yes Yes Yes
- less than or equal to Yes Yes Yes
- contains Yes Yes Yes
- more than or equal to Yes Yes Yes
- is empty Yes
- is not empty Yes
- does not contain Yes
- begin with Yes
- end with Yes
Export the result of query in different formats Yes
Graphical display of query result Yes

ENVIRONMENT
Color setup Yes Yes Yes
Date Format Yes Yes Yes
Show/hide scroll bar Yes Yes
Password Yes
Toolbar configuration Yes
Windows properties Yes
Windows colors Yes
Right mouse button on patient windows Yes

LINK WITH OTHER SOFTWARE

Import patient from CHIP Dos Yes Yes Yes
Import patient from Radar Patient File Yes Yes Yes
Link with other external tools Yes
Link with Medidat and Medistar Yes Yes Yes

WINDOWS FEATURES
Windows open with Windows command Yes Yes Yes
Tile/Cascade/next windows Yes Yes Yes
Change size of windows Yes Yes Yes
-resize fixed by setup Yes

OTHER FEATURES
Re-index Yes Yes Yes
Pack Yes Yes Yes
Backup/Restore Yes Yes Yes

*1) Only for Consultations

*2) Only for Global Reaction

73
74
*3) Only for Remedy, Global Reaction, Pathology, Patient Name and
Surname
*4) Only for one table at a time more Remedy, Global Reaction, Pathology,
Patient
Name and Surname Patient .
*5) Some fields are disabled: Place, remedies taken, Next appointment
*6) Only for Laboratory Pick List from consultation Window
*7) Only from View and not from Personal History Icon

74