In message <[log in to unmask]>, Jon Rogers
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Donovan Ross <[log in to unmask]> writes
>>I would like to suggest that the demands for clinical information in
>>acute medicine do not distort the overall demands on primary care.
>
>There are demands for clinical information from clinicians working in
>both the acute sector and primary care.
>
>The work of providing good clinical information for others to use is one
>of the cornerstones of good clinical practice, and as you imply, such
>work does place demands on the clinicians.
>
>The challenge now is to provide good clinical information, in an
>electronic format, that is useful to the recipient. This may require
>common formats, codes and message handling mechanisms, but above all it
>requires the sender and recipient agreeing what is useful information to
>convey.
>
>This has to a great extent been the work of the Clinical Message
>development groups, initially in pathology, radiology and discharge/out-
>patient letters [they reported to the professions in December 1994], and
>more recently in Cytology, A&E and contracting [work on-going].
-Jon,
I have no dificulty with the clinical argument and am interested in the
developement groups that you mention. However, financial factors will influence
the provision of care from a strategic level and the statistics that clinicians
provide may well provide ammunition for other arguments.
Donovan Ross
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