In this article we describe a prototype electronic medical-record system that has been developed specifically to facilitate searching through medical narratives, as part of a preparatory study to the development of a medical workstation. This system contains a searching structure in which several views on the medical data are combined. We describe the structure of the database and the user-interface. A second design goal was to prepare the system for conducting research with respect to the use of the medical record. We address the kind of test designs the system can support and describe the research module that was implemented. We also describe a study we conducted with the system and report part of its results. We discuss the significance of this medical-record system compared to systems in the literature, some technical and functional problems encountered, and our future plans with the system.