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The case is described of a 27-year-old woman who presented with an acute diarrhoeal illness. She was initially poorly responsive to antibiotics and developed lymphocytic ascites. Diagnosis was difficult to establish, and peritoneal tuberculosis was considered to be the most likely cause of her symptoms. Serological tests eventually confirmed Campylobacter jejuni infection. Campylobacter is one of the most common bacterial diarrhoeal infections, and complications, except for colitis, are rare except in specific disease states--for example, patients with cirrhosis or undergoing peritoneal dialysis. Antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem, and this may potentially lead to a greater incidence of complications in the future.

Although clinical guidelines have been gaining widespread acceptance as a management tool, practical difficulties in implementation and measurement of outcomes have been obstacles in their widespread use. Their complexity may discourage consistent use in everyday practice, while the lack of data tracking their implementation has limited the assessment of outcomes. Disease State Management Tracker (DSMT) addresses these concerns with a system that makes it easy for the practitioner to enter patient assessments and track services received, as well as monitor patient progress and outcomes. DSMT is based on the components of disease state management, namely: treatment algorithms, clinical decision making, and outcomes reporting. Complex treatment algorithms are easily stored and analyzed using either retrospective or prospective data. The DSMT software was developed as an application for the Windows 95/ environment. The workshop will be presented in the form of an overview of the DSMT and its functionalities while using community acquired pneumonia as an example disease state. The attendee will be able to convert locally or nationally developed clinical pathways and enter them into the DSMT. Next, patient assessment, assignment into management cells for provision of services, and determination of patient outcomes in the DSMT will be reviewed. Finally the capability of DSMT to generate extensive reports will be demonstrated. Some standard reports include determination of cost of treatment via the clinical pathway as well as cost of deviations from the pathway. DSMT is being used for various disease states including community acquired pneumonia, asthma, osteo‐arthritis, osteoporosis as well as in several practice environments including inpatient/out‐patient pharmacy, clinics, managed care, and LTC. The widespread applicability of the DSMT will be beneficial to healthcare practitioners, administrators, and researchers with diverse interests from managed care organizations, long term care, hospitals, community settings, and educational institutions.