Hey All... Since billing has not actually come up in this conversation yet I am glad that I can duck most of the shrapnel that seems to be flying around. But David said something in a recent post that I really cannot let go of.
I quote... "Availability is one of the big arguments why a local hospital wants the data in their total control. Even then it might not be accessible, but it makes them feel in control. I had to give a talk at a hospital the other day and the network wouldn't let them move a file to a machine across the hall. We had to resort to burning a CD!"
Who controls the data? The patient? He wants to be able to move his data around as painlessly as possible. The doctor? he wants to make sure that the Integrity and Availability of the data are assured. The administration? They view the data as an asset to be protect and possibly horded?
He who has the money controls the data. This is the problem.
I recently meet a veteran of the medical community who described the problems
modern medicine to me this way. He said that there were five groups in medicine
who all assume that they were the ones who were in CONTROL (emphasis mine) of
the medical community; Patients, Doctors, Insurance Companies, Drug Companies,
and the Government.
Free Software Really means "Software with which nobody can control anyone else". Free Software then translates to Free Data! Data which cannot be used to control someone.
Free software doesn't necessarily mean free data.
I really wonder why people are so afraid in this country. Afraid to lose control of their office. Afraid to lose control of their data. Afraid to move a file across the hall.
Power.
A psychologist once told me "Deep fears eventually causes the thing that we are afraid of".
I think that the greatest lesson that FOSS community has not yet made to the medical community is that FOSS will prevent them from being manipulated.
I wish this were true. It can be a help, but it doesn't stop the strong human trait of manipulation.
Where I agree, is what I keep hearing from hospitals that have purchased
a large system (usually for billing). They tell me that despite the
fact that they've paid the vendor some $10+M, the vendor owns them
rather than the other way around. They believe they can only do what
the vendor tells them they can do. They've totally lost control of their
resources. This is a big and recurring problem as far as I can see.
This is where open source can help. But it only helps. I find that there
isn't enough expertise in the hospital for them to understand what they really need.
They are dependent on the vendor for that knowledge. This is where the danger lies.
The same situation could happen with an open source installation. I don't have
a good solution for this problem.
Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
Dave
Fred Trotter
-- Fred Trotter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> SynSeer
