On Dec 19, 2005, at 6:43 PM, Nancy Anthracite wrote:
The first and only time I went to George Mason to work with a
class, some of
these very issues were discussed in a question and answer session.
I did not
pull any punches. I told them there were things that just were not
going to
work outside like the do inside the VA. I explained the students
could be
partners in the improvement process. They were already helping with
debugging some templates during the first class.
Okay, I like that approach, especially for a Masters level class. No
doubt, your students are going to have some idea of what they'd like
to see in a health information system, and VistA provides an
opportunity to make it happen.
The long an the short of why it is being used is that it is a
comprehensive
system that is open source and thus can be thoroughly poked,
prodded and
utilized like no other.
Hmm...I'm with you on "poked and prodded", that's what we do all the
time! But utilized is another story: Who is actually using VistA?
How? What are they able to do with it that they couldn't do with
another system? Does the extra investment into learning the system
prove a valuable investment? (Note: I am not say it isn't, only
suggesting that this is a question that needs to be considered
carefully.)
Whether or not students ultimately implement a VistA
system after they leave the university, they will get experience
implementing
A system
Yes. and one reason I think Unix is a good operating system for
academic use (aside from simply being a good operating system!) is
that it allows you to get "close to the metal". I suspect learning
your way around Unix would make you a better Windows programmer, too,
if you were so inclined. But notice that Unix isn't just an "academic
toy", it has proved to be a very solid and capable operating system.
(and yes, they hope to use it in real world situations) and as best
I can tell from the conferences I have been to, there are recurring
themes in
every implementation that need to be dealt with.
And what might they be (just a thought question)? More to the point:
What is it that makes them recurring themes? That's the kind of
question that helps us to delimit the field and understand better
what the basic problems are.
From what I understand, some of the questions you are asking will
be subjects
to be investigated by the students as part of the class.
Now, that's interesting -- really. One approach might be to ask what
the basic problems are and WHY they are problems.
===
Gregory Woodhouse
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Einstein was a giant. He had his head in the clouds and his feet on
the ground."
--Richard P. Feynman
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