Chronic Disease Electronic Management System (CDEMS)

CDEMS is the Chronic Disease Electronic Management System, a software application developed by the Washington State Diabetes Prevention and Control Program in 2002. CDEMS is a Microsoft Access database application designed to assist medical providers and management in tracking the care of patients with chronic health conditions.

CDEMS is pre-coded to track diabetes and adult preventive health but is customizable to change those tracking measures or define measures for monitoring other chronic conditions. Printed progress notes, patient lists, and summary reports generated from the registry database can alter the way services are delivered and measure quality improvement efforts. In addition, lab data can be automatically imported from LabCorp and other lab providers. The version of CDEMS available here has been extensively modified by the WVU Office of Health Services Research to provide additional features and reporting capabilities. In addition to diabetes, it has been set up to track cardiovascular disease, asthma, adult preventative health, and black lung.

CDEMS is public domain software and users may freely make changes to the program. It is provided free to interested health care providers. Support to users in West Virginia is provided by OHSR, which began supporting CDEMS in 2005, upgrading from CVDEMS which had been supported since 2003. OHSR provides technical support for the Patient Electronic Care System (PECS), as well as support in transitioning from PECS to CDEMS. Our office also supports primary care sites implementing electronic medical records, and provides guidance in using/adapting these systems for quality improvement and reporting requirements. The CDEMS zip file includes the following:     [download]

1. The CDEMS App, used to manage the patient registry, print progress notes, and edit patient information
2. The CDEMS Reporting App, use to query information on both a patient-level and population-level
3. A sample CDEMS data file which you can use to evaluate the registry
4. A blank CDEMS data file, to use used when beginning a new patient registry
5. Instructions on installing and setting-up the registry

The CDEMS user materials sip file includes the following:

1. CDEMS User Manual
2. CDEMS Data Dictionary and Relationships documentation [download]

The CDEMS update zip file is for users who have installed a previous version of CDEMS but want to update to the newest version of the Apps. This includes:

1. The latest version of the registry Apps
2. Instructions on updating the programs [download]

Note: If you need the PDF reader for the documentation or a program to unzip the files, please see the "Resource Software Downloads" in the Services tab.
For video tutorial on common questions in using CDEMS, please visit the CDEMS Channel.