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akuma587 on 31 March 2009
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nordlead said:
akuma587 said:
@ nordlead:

So people shouldn't have started using computers when the Pentium 1 came out because it was too slow? Electronics and software is an area where change can happen overnight. And the satisfaction rate of doctors who have made the switch is incredibly high if you look at the data. I don't think your anecdote is an accurate assessment of the situation.

I'm not saying they should never move forward, and I'm not saying you shouldn't start somewhere. I'm saying that they need to improve what is out there to acceptable standards, then people will be more willing to adopting it. If someone had enough capital, or personal dedication to produce good software that fixed the current shortcomings, then you could convince doctors to move forward. Also, the person who makes this wonderful software will make a lot of money.

 

But wouldn't giving money to hospitals specifically to use for this reason encourage programmers to develop this software?  When the private sector sees a way to make a profit, they will capitalize on that situation.  $18 Billion is a lot of money for someone who can write a couple thousand lines of code to modify a program that already does something substantially similar to what doctors need to work efficiently in the medical context.

And software can be written almost over night.  There are thousands of people on the internet who could write a program that would do everything hospitals needed in less than a week.

 



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