The medical industry is just now coming in to the electronic age.
Not hardly. Many of them are already deeply into proprietary systems that will cost a fortune to integrate. (I worked extensively in the data/imaging technology field from its practical commercial inception in the mid '80's until about 2001).
You are just seeing/noticing it more now at a consumer level - but the military, banking/mortgage companies, insurance companies and hospitals/health care centers (pretty much in that order) have been at the forefront of imaging and data technology for many, many years. With zillions of published (ANSI/AIIM) standards for image creation, storage and retirement.
Just the systems I've had my own hands in range from image/data storage on 14" optical platters in room-size jukeboxes to 5-1/4" CD-ROM towers. With databases on Wang, IBM, Digital, FileNet and other proprietary software/storage systems.
Looking for savings thru the employment or gov't mandate of medical record technologies is a pipe-dream of politicians. The cost for even a portion of that dream would be staggering.
These standards would include provision for device and operating system compatibility, security, access controls, storage, transportability, and upwards migration to new technology as it is developed in both technology and medicine.
I'd be surprised to see all that in my lifetime. It sounds like a government "mission statement". There's no incentive for private industry to serve all that up at their own expense. They thrive on competition and making things bigger and better. The only migration they really care about is forward migration and planned obsolescence of their own technologies; and, of course, that of converting from a competitor's platform to their own.
And forget about counting on the government to lead the way. I could tell you about a few states I worked with years ago who have a big gap in their State Archives because of the heavy usage of reel-to-reel recorders and tapes that ultimately couldn't be played anymore (when the equipment finally crapped out and parts were no longer available). To make it worse, the tapes generally degraded before any other device could retrieve or save the information. Years of state senate/congressional and committee sessions and hearings. Oops. Government heads, employees, directors .. they're all fluid. You can't implement a long term plan when there's no long-term accountability. |
