The changes in the US medical scene have left in place legacy electronic binary medical records systems that are unable to communicate with each other.

This paper examines how XML and Visual Basic can be used to build Windows and intranet applications that enable these systems to communicate. Emphasis is placed on an incremental deployment of these systems.

The widespread deployment of PC's running Windows means that any XML based system should be deployed on these platforms. The predominance of VB programmers, and the simplicity of using the MSXML ActiveX object dictate the use of these systems.

Three case histories where this combination are used are examined.