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Read Codes Welcome Rob Hampton of NHS CCC to GP-UK I have read carefully your e-mail. I am unable to understand some of your ideas fully. Especial ennumeration and compostitional. Formal evaluation by an American based organisation seems odd. If it is a 'Product' why the reluctance to modify it quickly for customers? Market place evaluation - if you step back through the UK-GP archives you will see what the market place think of your product. Whilst you have become more market orientated in the last nine months you have a long way to go. Could I suggest that you reply say on a weekly basis to the following headings. 1. "Why do you think computers are useful" for anything except fully automated industrial type jobs or at a pinch as a replacement for typing pools ? There is abundant evidence that they are expensive options for most medical clerical tasks especial if their if their failure rate was costed. 2. "Data collection is rarely of use" past the end of the current episode of illness. Retrospective research on data collected for other purposes is of little use for research. Though there are financial advantages in some countries but if use is un-planned it is a time consuming task to collectors. 3. "Present classification systems" are too big, have no clear function and there is no co-ordination of search engines between their designers and the collectors. This should do for the start. Depending on your replies, if you reply, I will comment further. By the way I have been using Read Codes for two years, with a simple search engine. I and my partners have laboriously found/used about 3 500 individual terms in that time, about 15 000 times on 11 000 patients. The Read words are often inappropriate, diffuse and the search chaotic. The search routine was imposed on the designers of the search engine so that doctors could not have their choice as first choice but would be forced to key through alternatives........ I understood this to be part of the original agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and CAMS. Welcome once again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Gerard Flaherty FRACGP 67 Hopkins Street Moonah Tasmania 7009 AUSTRALIA (The SAD Island south of Australia) email : [log in to unmask] Fax 61-02-781257 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%