At 00:50 +0200 02-08-1998, David Roberts wrote:
>Message text written by INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
>>In Holland I have the same experience.
><
>
>Is your health system wasting millions of pounds on IT, too?
>>>>>>>>>>
Heavens, NO.
Government isn;t spending.
They allow insureres to refund GP's their computing costs.
The LHV (a GP- organisation) certifies GP-systems.
> Not so many
>years ago one Midland Health Authority installed a fantastic new system
>throughout its empire. Cost millions when millions meant MILLIONS. Pity
>it had to be scrapped shortly afterwards. In the UK now our inestimable
>Prime Minister has this delusion that EVERY patient will be able to make
>appointments by IT with their GP at any time - and so on, and so on.
>>>>>>>
He means well, I think, I hope.
But he is an Ingnoramus, with an inflated belief in the state of affairs in
the IT sector.
He knows: "computers can store information, telephones connect computers,
there are messages, so information can be retreived from other computers
and changed in other computers. So it must be possible"
What he doesn't know, is that computer systems are small islands on their
own. They are designed to store information in a locally defined format.
They are not designed to transmit information.
This is a small nuance, but critical.
There is a hardware and software infrastructure to exchange bits and bytes,
but there is no real infrastructure to transmit INFORMATION in a general
way.
For this to happen we need much more united consensus on various Concepts /
COntext's related to (medical) Information. We need a special 'language'
for this: I call it MedSpeak.
> It
>has no more crossed his mind how than that of his Health Secretary who
>promised 7000 extra doctors. Nor has Blair thought about the cost, even it
>it were feasible, and how that NHS cash could be better spent on hips,
>hearts, knees, asthma, heart failure - or even Viagra (!). Have the IT
>wallahs considered that as they wade into the NHS £millions nationwide to
>indulge their hobby?
>
>David Roberts
>IT Reactionary
>>>>>>>
For the fun of it:
I like to agree with you.
But eveolution has its own momentum.
Technical developments will continue.
Medical IT will evolve.
But we need pragmatics combined with vision.
Each separately won't work well enough.
gf
ProRec- Nederland
Gerard Freriks,huisarts, MD
C. Sterrenburgstr 54
3151JG Hoek van Holland
the Netherlands
Telephone: (+31) (0)174-384296/ Fax: -386249
Mobile : (+31) (0)6-54792800
ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS
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