THis updates and replaces a previous posting which dealt with Healix,
extending it with a first impressions review of MD Intranet and
removing an extraneous reference.
Healix: Health Information eXchange: World Health Network.
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Doctors involved in this service should wish to stay distant from the
accounts and sales dept which seems to be Neumann Health communications
ltd.
Simon Procter rang me having acquired an introduction through a tenuous
link via a colleagues' family 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
and for a personal meeting to extend the service's use to other GPs in
the region 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, the program
just sends a purchase order, but fortunately I didn't qualify for the
special (but unlisted) 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.
Two days later 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.
Enclosure and Limitations
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.
Conclusion: Healix, no.
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
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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.
the company is reported to be owned by a GP.
Conclusion: NeMO, further study
MD Intranet
The installation pack for this arived following an effort to establish
my credentials, and my returning a confidentiality and use agreement
which seemed quite proper to me.
There seem to be no odd clauses in the paperwork.
Dr Michael d'Souza fronts the organisation, and two companies, Agora
whom Maresah Haines was mentioning as being involved in tendering for
PCG glue software, and TORCHE who are similarly involved provide the
technical service.
The server appears to be Lotus Notes/Domino which obvioulsy offers a
very solid foundation which should scale to a huge size quite smoothly.
Connection to the system is via a web browser, choose the one you
already use (Opera in my case - which turns out to be particularly well
suited here) or use the supplied Netscape browser from the CD in the
installation pack. If you are on WIndows 3.1 you get floppies of
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.03, the one with the most recent security
patches at the time of writing.
Setting up needs to be worked on, somebody with an existing connection
but less understanding than I could have had it severely loused up by
the setup instructions.
All that is actually required is to make a new dial up network
connection using WIndows 95, telling it the correct phone number, user
name and password as given in the instructions, and then select that
connection when starting the browser. The instructions regarding
network settings should be ignored unless you are not networked at all,
messing with them could leave you with a horrible mess otherwise.
The initial URL - internet address to type into the browser is in the
raw form, a group of 4 numbers separated by periods, and obviously one
should instantly make a bookmark or hotlist setting for that, to avoid
having to retype it.
Having opened the first page and given the second pair of user name and
password supplied, the best idea with Opera is to open each section of
the site in a separate browser window, and then copy all the URLs into
a single folder which one can open en masse the next time it is
visited. This is a civilised feature unavailable to the users of MS IE
and Netscape, as yet, and much to be commended.
I approve of the networking arangements, using the technology of the
Internet, and of the underlying commitment to security, but it does
mean that a session on MD Intranet cannot be undertaken in association
with other information obtained from other sites, which f course
severely limits the use of the fundamental feature of the World WIde
Web by the designers of MD Intranet - they cannot place links to other
sites in their material.
For one's own use a solution involving a proxy server, either a machine
on the network, or something like NearSite running on on's own machine
would allow concurrent retrieval of the surgery home pages and for
instance PCG agendas, but of course MD Intranet hope that we will all
move such material onto their system. I am not entirely in favour of
this, since the public have a legitimate interest in the affairs of the
PCG and are entitled to indulge it under the NHS code of openness, and
letting them into the website is undoubtedly the cheapest way of
observing that code.
However, as a way of geting unconnected practices connected this is a
good initiative.
Some of the content is material I had not found elsewhere, but the
presentation of it is in some ways odd, having gone to the trouble of
inventing a locked version of the internet for security reasons,
placing Word files on it with their inability to be read directly, and
their capacity to carry macro viruses - to say nothing of their
overbloated size - on it seems odd. Storing documents as rich text
format RTF or bringing them straight into the pages as HTML seems much
preferable to me.
Indeed once they are downloaded as identifiable doc files they are far
more vulnerable to improper access than if they are only saved in the
browser's cache as unidentifiable files.
Alternative technology to provide the same effects?
Using the secure sockets system with a suitable browser should be able
to provide security, but obviously the decision to isolate the site on
its own server gives a real and physical degree of safety. It is
interesting that the founders have rejected NHS Net, quite properly, as
givng nothing like the level of security they are after.
Conclusion: MD Intranet
Needs watching to see what the content is, and PCGs need to work out
what their requirements are. Soon.
This system could supply most required linkage for PCGs without
conflicting with the need to bring Practices onto the real Internet,
indeed it should help to do so.
Conclusion Overall - Interim
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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, both MD Intranet and NeMO have the
potential to be satisfactory, MD Intranet is more politicaly inclined
at present.
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