Adrian,
I have explained some of these factors on another posting
<<Considering the NHS as a big corporate environment, a bias I suspect
successive waves of senior civil servants will continue to exhibit,
Notes seems not a bad idea. (Mind you, the local HA seem to have
developed the opinion that the success of Microsoft Exchange as a
standard for NHS comms is assured. I couldn't comment - especially
now they seem to have got it to go again)>>
This another example of Microsoft products becoming de facto standards
because vastly better marketing. Exchange vs Lotus Notes - most people
who grasp what Notes is capable of would not touch Exchange. However
the overwhelming experience on NHS IT people is with Exchange so they
are unlikely to recommend anything else. I will work on a comparison
paper
<<The BMA has adopted Notes and is rolling out connections - I don't
know if they will get as far as me but they might.
I suspect that one could define a patient record in Notes and if the
whole NHS, hospitals and general practices and Trusts and so on,
were running Notes, a distributed system would be at least
theoretically possible. Just a thought.>>
The DOH also installed a 5000 user Lotus Notes system for their
standard email communications - installed by Total Computer solutions
All the DOH website info is stored in Notes databases ( look out for
.nsf extensions as these refer to Notes)
At present I don't see Notes as a Patient record systems because it
would not compete with the power of existing systems. Notes is not good
for large volume transactions ( millions) in a database but is a
wonderful "glue" which can distribute data and pull disparate parts
together. Notes mail has similar features to Outlook 98 with inuit
calendaring and scheduling ( using Lotus Organiser type technology) - I
think this will be very powerful tool as we try and work together in
PCGs
<<Other systems exist which are capable of tackling these tasks,
including FirstClass; Exchange; SQL Anywhere - but Notes has a track
record and the convergence toward the common browser interface is
very encouraging. I think the Peterborough experience is one which
the NHS should see as very valuable, and i wonder if some account of
it eg why Notes was chosen over other systems, how it is being used
and so on, could be exposed for the rest of us.>>
Excellent track record, reliability ( I have personally administered
the our old Notes server running in windows 3.11 for over 2 years and
rarely needed to do much to it or ever call in an engineer.
Occasionally needed advice by email or phone). It was chosen because I
was involved in a another IT project with BOB Woods , Professor of
Information Technology at Salford university and a Notes client was put
into our surgery for a year accessing a server in Cheshire! My
experience with led me to becoming a Notes fan!!!. Bob is actually
interested in doing academic evaluations of the impact of groupware
We presented a paper on this comparing our experiences with those of
the Avon trailblazer project at Exchanging Healthcare Information Oct
1997 conference ( copy of paper available by email request to me)
Dr Amrit Takhar Wansford surgery,
Peterborough, UK
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/amrit
or copy of site on
http:// http://www.btinternet.com/~amrit
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