Ignacio Valdes wrote:
> No kidding that brings back memories: 1984, big dental office practice. The
> carpet, walls, chairs and desks all had the same lime green color.
> Decorating idea of the owner's wife. Pick was impressive back then, seemed
> well suited to the task and didn't eat up resources. I never used or saw it
> again after that.
Half the world's libraries use public access catalogue systems written
in Pick. Or at least they did before the Web was invented - its hard to
tell what's behind the browser interface these days. So you probably
have used a Pick system since then.
Pick was a popular alternative to MUMPS in the 1980s for quite a few
medical systems. Here in Australia, there was a community health system
called Ferret written in Pick and a company called Amfac did (or still
does) sell Pick-based systems for general practices and pharmacies (they
even have a methadone clinic module). It seems that Pick runs on top of
SCO Unix as the underlying OS. I was bemused to read the following in a
FAQ on their Web site (see
http://www.amfac.com.au/Assistance/medical_faqs.htm ):
"11. How do I cancel a print job?.
If you start a long running print job that you wish to cancel, here is
how to do it.
Press the on-line button on the printer to take it off-line.
Login as root. The password is usually rec0rd (with a zero) or simply
press <enter>.
...snip..."
Ahem.
It does raise the issue of security for primary care systems. A PC is a
much more desirable target for thieves than a cabinet of 5 by 8 filing
cards, or manilla folders, or whatever pen-and-paper medical record
system the PC replaced. Clearly medical data stored on disc (and on
backup tapes and CD-ROMs) needs to be protected with high level physical
security, which is rarely feasible in small clinics or practices, or it
must be adequately encrypted (and that does not mean the piss-weak 40bit
RC2 encryption offered by MS Access). Are open source medical systems
better than commercial offerings in this respect, I wonder?
Tim Churches
Sydney, Australia
PS How many minutes will elapse after this message is posted before
Andrew Ho replies, mentioning his (literally) patented secret splitting
method for maintaining confidentiality? Just teasing!
TRC
Tim C
