On 15-May-15 12:54 AM, Chris Johnson wrote: > The Electronic Health Record project is just one of those impossible > things. No more money! stop it now. It's beyond the Auditor-General, > it's beyond everyone. ... > The failure is collective: there is no small group of individuals who > failed to say "no, minister" (or "no, permanent secretary"), it's > collective hubris.
Hubris - a word I have used myself in this context. IMHO, the arrogance starts with a piece of flawed logic: "IT has been successfully used in many areas, therefore it should be used for health records." The PCEHR is a technical solution applied in an area where the technology is only a very small part of the problem. As Chris points out, the social constraints and drivers are worse than the technical requirements. I'd put them at least an order of magnitude worse. The first step in creating health information systems (that's information systems, not IT) is to recognise that it's all about how better use of information can lead to changes in the way health care works. Very few, if any, IT professionals know anything about how health care works. The number of people (including health care workers, public servants, IT professionals and even health infomatics people) who know how health care systems could be significantly improved through better processes based upon enhanced information is probably close to zero. Until this is recognised, nothing the government does will work. Progress in health information systems has to be made slowly, experimentally and carefully. We are in uncharted waters and people's lives are at risk. -- Regards brd Bernard Robertson-Dunn Sydney Australia email: [email protected] web: www.drbrd.com web: www.problemsfirst.com Blog: www.problemsfirst.com/blog _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
