Leo,
How connected is your brother to this?  He might like to stay distant
from the accounts and sales dept which seems to be Neumann health
communications ltd.

Simon Procter rang me and asked me to evaluate the software, which I
was not, frankly, very keen to do, having enough software to evaluate,
write and select at present, but I agreed since he seemed so keen on my
opinion.  No mention of fees or money of any sort.

I started getting a bit wary when I got several requests for comment an
a personal meeting over the safemail system but thought "what the hell,
they are just keen"

After playing with it for a couple of weeks I decided it was not for me
(BTW there is a bit which if you click, as I thought, to find out about
on-line purchase of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, it sends a
purchase order, but fortunately I didn't qualify for th especial price
having not been enrolled for long enough)  

So I e-mailed (safemailed) WHN to tell them that, and de-installed it,
freeing up some disk space I badly needed.

Yesterday I got an invoice, for £423 which is not payable if I return
the pack, packaging and software (CD) undamaged.  Now I don't know what
you do with envelopes, but I bin em, and the same goes for advertising
bumph with trial discs.

SO I have gone from regarding them as well intentioned but
unfortunately on a wrong track, which should be opposed but not
attacked, to feeling they are some sort of inertia selling
organisation.  AFAIK if one is sent unsolicited goods, they need only
be kept for the owner to collect, there isn't a requirement to actually
post them back - but given the likelihood of th ematerials being
re-used it seems more of a ploy.

It is an effort to get a group of GPs onto a closed system, it doesn't
provide them with web access, and therefore they would always need (and
LMCs need them to have) Web access, and it tends to fragment rather
than unite the profession.

I advise against promotion of this software as a tool for PCG or LMC
communications, but if you are tempted to evaluate it yourself, make
sure the company understand that you are doing them a favour inspecting
their product, not buying it with the option to return if unsatisfied.

Alternatives offering similar facilities
--------------------------------------------
NeMO
I have previously looked at Network Medical On-Line, and this seems
quite supportable.  I don't have it on a machine at the moment and look
forward to evaluating it in detail, but this system offers similar
closed information sources, but also provides the essential gate to the
Web.

MD Intranet
The installation pack for this has just arived, following an impressive
effort to establish my credentials, and I have looked at it for odd
clauses in the paperwork which seem to be absent so far.  I do see that
it involves Agora whom Maresah Haines was mentioning as being involved
in tendering for PCG glue software.  

Conclusion
-------------
Obviously many people will be trying to get into this market/provide a
service, one must simply evaluate them agaist needs and principles.

Healix I find to fail on both.




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