Jay,

It sounds like you're looking for a file format that can contain both image and text the way FileMaker does; one that might be transferrable to the new system.

No such file format exists.

Most file formats that combine data like this are proprietary. The other option for exporting container data (which is binary) as part of a text file is to encode it as text with Base64. I don't recall if there were any plug-ins that allow you to base64 encode a container field in FileMaker Pro 6, but there are a handful that do so in later versions of FileMaker Pro.

So there are two ways I might go.
1) Base64 encode the field and export the data
2) Export the data as a CSV and export the image separately as images (using the Export Field Contents command) with the patient's primary key as the name of the file.

Cheers,
-corn


On 15 Oct 2012, at 7:55 AM, Jay Erlebacher wrote:

> Your advice seems very practical and do-able. Steve.
> The question then, is what format the commercial EMR needs, and whether FMP12 can export the container images and key data into that format.
> 
> Does anyone else have some input here?



Cornelius Walker
The Proof Group
http://proofgroup.com/