»Hands on« Computer Tabulation of a Cumulative Case Register

A method of interrogating a continuously updated psychiatric case register via a flexible user-access package is described. Users request cross-tabulations and case-listings direct from the machine using natural language to specify their own cross-tabulation keys and table selections. Tabulation facilities include both event-based and person-based counts. Time-axis keys cover the whole period of the register’s lifetime. Analysis may take place within customary prevalence models of care or within experimental conceptual models, periodicities and spell constructs developed by users. The paper explains how complex cumulative register information can be organised to enable these analytic facilities to be made directly available to lay users. The package circumvents the programming barrier which hinders full exploitation of computerised registers, allowing lay users to extract their own epidemiological and service-evaluation data, without specialist programmer intervention.