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Have you seen the crap UI doctors use?

by kelukelugames 11y ago

CyberDildonics 11y ago
Tell me more about this. I've heard general stories but I want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
- sanotehu 11y ago
  A lot of it is essentially hacking around the fact that medicine & hospitals weren't designed for computers. For example: we used to (still do) keep large files of old notes for patients. In the worst cases think reams of paper three inches thick held together by the flimsiest of plastic ties. The solution for computerising this? Scan it all. Categorise by date and medical specialty. Unfortunately using this database turns out to be horrendously slow. Each doctor has to download each page from the database in order to look at it and make sure it's not the page they are looking for (no or poor text recognition). As you can imagine, hundreds of doctors doing this at 9am in the morning grinds the network to a halt. That's just one component of the system we use every day - I have more!
  - CyberDildonics 11y ago
    That sounds like a ridiculous waste of expensive time. I'm interested in more (and I haven't been able to find out how to direct message)
- cwilkes 11y ago
  A word of advice: don't ever get into the medical software field. I've tried it twice and saw the same problem each time. The sales cycle is a year long. At the end of the year the result is either "we are sticking with BigCo's crap that they told us they would improve the last 5 years" or "budgets are due and they need a new wing so ours was cut" A coworker explained it perfectly: the industry is run in fear. Fear that if you buy software that fails you will be fired. Fear that if someone across the street buys some software and it works you better get it too.
- DCoder 11y ago
  You might find Robert Wachter's The Digital Doctor interesting, although it focuses on the big picture more than specific examples: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5I9A0/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5I9A0/
moron4hire 11y ago
I've been spending a lot of time in a neonatal intensive care unit [0] lately. It's driving me nuts watching them use Outlook to coordinate patient care. I suppose it works, but seems like Outlook should be a low bar to overcome. I accidentally saw a sign that they have a medical simulation lab here at the hospital and for the first time in 5 years I'm seriously considering giving up my own business to go get a day job. [0] Don't worry too much. He was just a little early. Otherwise very healthy.

Have you seen the crap UI doctors use?

CyberDildonics 11y ago

Tell me more about this. I've heard general stories but I want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

sanotehu 11y ago
A lot of it is essentially hacking around the fact that medicine & hospitals weren't designed for computers. For example: we used to (still do) keep large files of old notes for patients. In the worst cases think reams of paper three inches thick held together by the flimsiest of plastic ties. The solution for computerising this? Scan it all. Categorise by date and medical specialty. Unfortunately using this database turns out to be horrendously slow. Each doctor has to download each page from the database in order to look at it and make sure it's not the page they are looking for (no or poor text recognition). As you can imagine, hundreds of doctors doing this at 9am in the morning grinds the network to a halt. That's just one component of the system we use every day - I have more!
- CyberDildonics 11y ago
  That sounds like a ridiculous waste of expensive time. I'm interested in more (and I haven't been able to find out how to direct message)
cwilkes 11y ago
A word of advice: don't ever get into the medical software field. I've tried it twice and saw the same problem each time. The sales cycle is a year long. At the end of the year the result is either "we are sticking with BigCo's crap that they told us they would improve the last 5 years" or "budgets are due and they need a new wing so ours was cut" A coworker explained it perfectly: the industry is run in fear. Fear that if you buy software that fails you will be fired. Fear that if someone across the street buys some software and it works you better get it too.
DCoder 11y ago
You might find Robert Wachter's The Digital Doctor interesting, although it focuses on the big picture more than specific examples: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5I9A0/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5I9A0/

moron4hire 11y ago

I've been spending a lot of time in a neonatal intensive care unit [0] lately. It's driving me nuts watching them use Outlook to coordinate patient care. I suppose it works, but seems like Outlook should be a low bar to overcome. I accidentally saw a sign that they have a medical simulation lab here at the hospital and for the first time in 5 years I'm seriously considering giving up my own business to go get a day job. [0] Don't worry too much. He was just a little early. Otherwise very healthy.