Jonathan has made some very important points which are as valid today
as they were in the early days of electronic transmission of
laboratory results to GPs (we started 15 years ago following in the
Oxford footsteps). I recall that at the time real concern was
expressed that the GP and laboratory views of a given set of results
might not be the same, and some attempt at end-to-end quality
assurance was proposed. These days I would express the problem with a
slightly different emphasis: all other things being equal would the
laboratory view and the GP view of a given set of results lead to the
same conclusion and medical decision?
Another equally valuable point concerns composite views where the data
is held in a number of related tables. I would always advise that an
image (a simple dump into a text field would suffice) of every such
composite report is made at the time it is signed off, so that in the
future an audit or other investigation could return to exactly what
the computer system actually displayed rather than what it now thinks
it would have displayed at the time!
Ian
================================
Prof Ian Wells MA PhD CEng MBCS CITP
Consultant Computer Scientist, Department of Medical Physics
Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1483 464039 Internal: 6873 Email: [log in to unmask]
Visiting Professor, Department of Computing, University of Surrey,
Guildford GU2 7XH
Tel: +44 (0)1483 682646 Internal: 2646 (Tuesdays only)
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