Tim, RE: "That might be an accurate description of the US healthcare system, but thankfully the US system is restricted (more or less) to the US, despite attempts to export it and despite attempts by misguided politicians elsewhere to copy it....(snip)... Thus, although dreams of regional or national EHRs seem far-fetched in the US, they are achievable elsewhere, I think, and perhaps within a decade."
I share your concerns about the US healthcare model, which differs mainly in the area of payment. Allowing 6000 insurance companies to become so firmly wedged between patients and providers was NOT a good idea. The only possible benefit to patients and the common good is risk-mitigation... something that the US govt. is in a MUCH better position to do fairly, and something that commercial health plans have not really given us anyway. In fact "risk mitigation by my rules" being obviously better than shouldering the full risk, has become the chief subscriber-retention strategy for many health plans. Some people even choose to remain in jobs and careers they despise, in order to have SOME health coverage. But it took us 40+ years to get into this jam in the US and we cannot expect to back out of it overnight. If there is anything inherently "unfair" about the US situation (besides the government failing to accept its role of chief risk-mitigator) it is the lack of representation of provider needs in the general area of "information management" and standards development. I believe that we could live with the US payer-model if our govt. found a way to even out the $-risk of health problems for all patients... assure that all Americans had access to a reasonable level of care... and funded a mechanism for discovering and publishing provider requirements in the form of at least a national, if not global standard. -Chris Christopher J. Feahr, O.D. Optiserv Consulting (Vision Industry) Office: (707) 579-4984 Cell: (707) 529-2268 http://Optiserv.com http://VisionDataStandard.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Churches" <tc...@optushome.com.au> To: "Thomas Clark" <tclark at hcsystems.com> Cc: "Christopher Feahr" <chris at optiserv.com>; "Thomas Beale" <thomas at deepthought.com.au>; <openehr-technical at openehr.org> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 1:59 PM Subject: Re: certification and verification of OpenEHR - If you have any questions about using this list, please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org
