Comments on: News 11/20/09

By: Thats Right

Thats Right — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:26:29 +0000

In regards to cutting back on mammograms… so many women under the age of (the study I read said 50) are diagnosed early due to early exams… cutting back will only lead to later detection and MORE healthcare costs. When will our country’s medical “Gods”, insurance companies and government figure out that its about Prevention…??

By: Art_Vandelay

Art_Vandelay — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:58:53 +0000

Did you hear?

The VA has a big IT Department too, they use MUMPS, and they have a huge and decentralized IT organization! Everyone, get the pitchforks and torches!

While we thrash Marshfield and the VA, we should also prepare to go to war against these vendors and all their customers too:

* Intersystems (MUMPS)
* Epic (MUMPS)
* SunQuest (MUMPS)
* Siemens Medical (COBOL, RPG)
* McKesson (COBOL, MUMPS)
* GE Medical (COBOL, SCOBOL, MUMPS)
* Eclipsys (MUMPS in SDK)

I feel another Czar-appointment from our President coming.

By: Art_Vandelay

Art_Vandelay — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:50:03 +0000

Re: Marshfield using COBOL – what is wrong with using COBOL? If it works, you are not looking to throw-away money rewriting what you already have, you can support it now, you can continue to train programmers to support it into the future, and compilers exist for the hardware platforms that are required to support your processing volume – WHO CARES?

“According to analyst estimates, 60-80 percent of the world’s enterprises still rely on COBOL to run their business. There are over 200 billion lines of COBOL currently in operation globally across every industry, and the language supports over 30 billion transactions per day – many of which impact our lives every day.” Source: Microfocus Study (sure they have a vested interest but it has been validated with other independent studies as well… take a minute and Google it).

COBOL is not a dead language. It is alive and well. In fact, it is one of the few languages that was “healthy” enough to AGE WELL.

Here is a thought-provoking calculation (the time when the world could be COBOL free):

http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-jun17-01.html#etc

By: Fourth Hansen Brother

Fourth Hansen Brother — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:30:54 +0000

Marshfield? They’ve been at it since 1965, still use COBOL, and have an IT Department that’s huge. Kudos?

By: John@Chilmark

John@Chilmark — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:22:46 +0000

Hold on folks on the search for cost savings and quality improvements as a result of EHR adoption. Not all that surprising really when you look at Jha’s other study that found nearly 91% of hospitals do not even have a fully functioning EHR! We are in the very early stages of adoption folks, and this will take time.

Look over at mfg, the sector I hail from where IT adoption began in earnest in the 80′s but manufacturers did not see measurable productivity improvements till a decade later. Plenty of research has been published on the subject, just search IT, paradox, productivity and manufacturing.

As for MyMedicalRecords in China, well good luck to them, the Chinese that is as MMR is good on marketing and poor on tech, really nothing more than a glorified fax server.