This story IS legend, reported over and over. My recollections it made headlines when it occurred - not that long ago. Numerous technologies need some performance protection. ECG, spirometry, ultrasound, and yes, x-ray machines come to mind. Image storage has no radiation, or any other dangerous, exposure. One could make the case of lousy quality, however, that isn't storage. I could even see some standard about acceptable document format (or DICOM).
That such events control common sense is also legend. Of course, I need to acknowledge I don't really know what we are missing on image. Kevin, does your interface work in windows/Cache? Maybe we just need to convert pdf to HTML. Or will it handle pdf with URL address? The more I look at this the more I think the URL/pdf may work without a lot of extra programming. thurman > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardhats- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kevin Toppenberg > Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 10:23 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] Can't find 'Define Imaging site paramaters > option' !!! > > I think the issue here is patient safety for medical > DEVICES. > > I was griping about this issue to a friend of mine who > works in IT in a hospital. He is familiar with the > FDA regulations. He told me a story that gave me some > perspective. Perhaps its an urban legand, but I don't > think so. > > At one point, a radiation therapy equipment vender was > trying to change from a hardware control system to a > software control system for one of its machines. For > awhile they use a software method with a hardware > backup. It seemed to work great. Occasionally the > equipment would freeze up, and the users would simply > reboot. The vender apparently didn't realize this was > happening. Then the day came with they removed the > hardware backup controls and went to software only. > Not long after, the machine encountered a software > glitch and delivered a lethal dose of radiation to a > patient, who subsequently died. > > I turned out that when the machine was freezing up, it > was a conflict between the software and hardware > controls. But the real moral of the story is that > software is an integral part of the functioning of a > machine. The FDA *SHOULD* regulate such machines for > patient safety. > > Now, in our situation, we are trying to take that > machine and turn it into a toaster, or web browser, or > perhaps part of a non-radiology software package. It > would be unreasonable for the FDA to evaluate all > these non-devices use of the brains of their regulated > software. My guess is that if someone took the > imaging software and used it in a means that was not > connected to a DEVICE, that they would be able to > defend themselves in court. > > But is it worth it? Why don't we just develop another > option? I have found a way to imbed a web browser in > CPRS so that it will fetch any image referenced in an > HTML-formatted note. If someone would work on the > scanning end of things (which I don't think is part of > VistA imaging anyway), we would be all set. > > Just some thoughts. > > Kevin > > --- Thurman Pedigo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This seems to have become dysfunctional. Is > > PaperPort FDA approved? > > Practices, including mine, use it all time (have for > > years) to store paper > > copies. Perhaps the FDA issue IS overblown as is so > > common with HIPAA. What > > we need is capability to store (and effectively > > retrieve) a PDF, or other > > acceptable standard. Perhaps the standard needs a > > sledge. > > > > thurman > > > > > > ____________________________________________________ > Sell on Yahoo! Auctions - no fees. Bid on great items. > http://auctions.yahoo.com/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the 'Do More With Dual!' webinar > happening > July 14 at 8am PDT/11am EDT. We invite you to explore the latest in dual > core and dual graphics technology at this free one hour event hosted by > HP, > AMD, and NVIDIA. To register visit http://www.hp.com/go/dualwebinar > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the 'Do More With Dual!' webinar happening July 14 at 8am PDT/11am EDT. We invite you to explore the latest in dual core and dual graphics technology at this free one hour event hosted by HP, AMD, and NVIDIA. To register visit http://www.hp.com/go/dualwebinar _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
