The authors have developed a system that searches for radiologic reports, and we have evaluated the utility of this system for clinical application, research and medical education.

The system retrieves radiologic reports from the OCS (ordering communication system) server and stores them in a separate computer. A CGI (common gateway interface) program was written to search the database with variable keywords given by the user. The system satisfied the requirements of functionality, accessibility and security.

Users could search for radiologic reports with variable keywords using the web browser, and the user could refine the results using combinations of these keywords. The system has been running successfully for 2 years, and radiologists have used this system for searching or collecting cases, keeping reports and gathering statistics.

The simple text searching system has been developed in a short time period with only small costs and a bit of hard effort, and this system is practical for clinical use, research and medical education.