IPPASOS: The first digital forensic information system in Greece

Abstract

Objective

This article describes the first digital clinical information system tailored to support the operational needs of a forensic unit in Greece and to maintain its archives.

Method

The development of our system was initiated towards the end of 2018, as a close collaboration between the Medical School of the University of Crete and the Forensic Medicine Unit of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, where forensic pathologists assumed active roles during the specification and testing of the system.

Results

The final prototype of the system was able to manage the life cycle of any forensic case by allowing users to create new records, assign them to forensic pathologists, upload reports, multimedia and any required files; mark the end of processing, issue certificates or appropriate legal documents, produce reports and generate statistics. For the first 4 years of digitised data (2017–2021), the system recorded 2936 forensic examinations categorised as 106 crime scene investigations, 259 external examinations, 912 autopsies, 102 post-mortem CT examinations, 804 histological examinations, 116 clinical examinations, 12 anthropological examinations and 625 embalmings.

Conclusion

This research represents the first systematic effort to record forensic cases through a digital clinical information system in Greece, and to demonstrate its effectiveness, daily usability and vast potential for data extraction and for future research.