Hi, the hospital is very robust and is now more than 100 years old and still one of the most modern hospitals in germany. It has now ca. 780 beds (many years before it has almost 1000 beds, but they pulled it down due to tax and benefits considerations). The website is here (only in german but you can use google for translation). http://www.vinzenz.de/marienhospital/
The digital radiology systems are now running since more than 2 years and we users have not seen any storage problems but rather the efficiency has increased several fold. They are producing around 1.5 TeraB annually and is expected to rise to 3 TB in the near future. They have a complete line of digital radiological test devices including digital CT and NMR. Here is an article about their storage system in PDF. Again in german but you can use google translator. You will see that one xSeries server stores 4 TB and they are clustering these. So in the future they just add additional "box" to expand the storage volume. http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/de/downloads/pdf/references/marienhospital.pdf The backup system is an identical system located in a different physical site and which mirrors the primary one. They have UPS systems for the network. The entire hospital itself has two stage power backup system composed of lead-acid battery array and a diesel generator. And, ah yes, the hospital is very rich. The admin usually keeps their financial data confidential but in one meeting I once heared that the hospital has an annuall earning in excess of 100 million Euros (could be more). I am sure you dont have any problems with that fact. They do not serve lobster tails in the cafeteria though. They have contingency plans and the money to pay for it. But we all know that no system is ever perfect so it helps to be pragmatic and get on with life (and work) and avoid getting paranoid (or at least hide the symptoms of paranoia). If you want a person-person communication with them try contacting the hospitals IT. Here is the telephone number : +49 711 6489-0 and ask to be connected to the "EDV Abteilung". Respectfully, Elpidio On Friday 29 October 2004 13:00, plasticdoc wrote: > And, for how long is the system running? > Is it running for at least 3 years? > Or is it just beginning? In small (up to 300 bed)to medium sized > (300-500 bed) hospitals, digital storage problems start to surface after > the third year. In big size hospitals (over 500 bed) problems start to > surface after the first year. > Of course, exceptions exist, like the oncology facilities heavily based > in CAT or NMR, in which those problems are almost instantaneous. > > > Now, one revelation for all of us techies here is the main reason why the > > hospital decided to switch to full digital systems (spending some million > > euros) > > They already spent some million euros... That is good. They seem to be > wealthy. Really rich people only eat the lobster tails. > > I am curious. In which support is that "digital system" based? > Is it RAM based? Is it Hard Drive based? > And in which medium is the backup stored? > And what is the practical storage capability of the main and the backup > systems? Is it in the terabytes, petabytes, or greater? > > Will those systems survive an external medium level electromagnetic > pulse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse)? > "Society has entered the information age and is more dependent on > electronic systems that work with components that are very susceptible > to excessive electric currents and voltages." in International Union of > Radio Science, "Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse and Associated Effects," > Telecommunication Journal, Vol 52, p.57. > > We do not even need to think in conventional nuclear or "shoe box" size > neutron bombs here. We only need to think in the consequences of a > severe storm, or a non-banal malfunction in the hospital electrical > central causing an electromagnetic "pulse". > > I know that paper, x-ray film, plastic based films, bidimensional > optical coding over paper or synthetic film will work. Holographic > systems are also said to work, but will your system work? > > Will you system survive that? I wonder. Or, perhaps, your hospital have > been build inside a Faraday cage... > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage) > > If not, what are the plans to recovery from "bare metal". > I.e., what are the plans to recover using brand new hardware that, in a > hurry, is just brought in, connected, and run through a quick software > restore in order to bring a fully operational system up? > I am sure that your hospital IT Dept. has evaluated that scenario and > has contingency plans for that... > > We certainly would like to learn from them. Please tell us how are they > long time preserving the patient data in your hospital... > > Don't we all just love technology? > Just give me some of those 2 centimeter cubes with tridimensional DNA > based hybrid proteins and its yottabyte > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotta) storage capability and I promise > never to talk again about megabytes, terabytes... and all those "get > back down to earth" little problems... > > Come on Elpidio, you should know better... :-) > > Best regards, > J. Antas ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Sybase ASE Linux Express Edition - download now for FREE LinuxWorld Reader's Choice Award Winner for best database on Linux. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_idU88&alloc_id065&op=click _______________________________________________ Care2002-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/care2002-developers
