On 05/03/2008, Rev Simon Rumble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This one time, at band camp, David Guest wrote: > > > The format for this data is undocumented but should not be too difficult > > to decipher. It changes from time to time so you are playing samba to > > HCN's Microsoft. > > > Making assumptions about data, especially something as important to a > business as billing data, is fraught with danger.
In this case it's much more than billing data - we're talking about sensitive medical records that meed to be managed and interchanged in ways strictly defined by guidelines and legislation set by governments and various other authorities. Imagine the difficulties associated with designing a business-ready FOSS accounting package, and multiplying all the complexities tenfold. I've been involved in a number of deployments of medical software in Australia, and I've quite frankly been shocked at the poor design and implementation decisions made. In one system still widely used in regional Australia, it is expected that interaction be made over RDP (Windows remote desktop). Considering the WAN links are satellite with an ISDN uplink, the results aren't fantastic. If the ISDN goes down (which isn't uncommon), the system becomes unbearable to use as the satellite takes over the uplink too. Imagine running an interactive desktop session over a link that has latencies (pings) in the order of one second. In terms of FOSS alternatives, take a look at Gnumed[1]. Their FAQ[2] is probably the best place to start. The project doesn't look particularly active, but I could be wrong. [1] http://www.gnumed.org/ [2] http://www.gnumed.org/faqs.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
