Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A Point of Ponderance
As a point of ponderance tonight I did a couple of Google searches - the first was on "electronic medical records software" which netted the usual million or so hits, but of particular interest was the first page which was loaded down with different companies offering electronic medical records. After clicking on a couple of links (by no means an exhaustive research), I noticed what I took to be a glaring absense. I refined my search to "digital radiology" and was amazed that the third listing was for Wikipedia and not a company offering the latest advancement. Of more than particular interest was the fact that Siemens was present on both pages toward the top of the list.
I was trained in DICOM early on, so I am sure my knowledge is more or less dated, and I know Siemens to be a highly professional company, so I would trust their digital integration (especially with their EMR offering). But I found it odd, that the seemingly cornucopious listing of companies for EMR's did not replicate for digital radiology. Of the companies listed in the later, only Siemens was present in the former. Interesting...
I have worked on EMR software for many years being a programmer and systems analyst for VistA systems within the Veterans Health Administration (not Microsoft), and have even had a stint at running a small multinational which dealt with the open source version of VistA. It is my honest opinion that EMRs coupled with digital radiology are one of the best advanced in medicine to come along in a while. Oh, they aren't rocket science, nor are they the cure for cancer, but they provide information in abundance at the physicians fingertips. And I have always felt that the best diagnosis starts with the best information.
I was trained in DICOM early on, so I am sure my knowledge is more or less dated, and I know Siemens to be a highly professional company, so I would trust their digital integration (especially with their EMR offering). But I found it odd, that the seemingly cornucopious listing of companies for EMR's did not replicate for digital radiology. Of the companies listed in the later, only Siemens was present in the former. Interesting...
I have worked on EMR software for many years being a programmer and systems analyst for VistA systems within the Veterans Health Administration (not Microsoft), and have even had a stint at running a small multinational which dealt with the open source version of VistA. It is my honest opinion that EMRs coupled with digital radiology are one of the best advanced in medicine to come along in a while. Oh, they aren't rocket science, nor are they the cure for cancer, but they provide information in abundance at the physicians fingertips. And I have always felt that the best diagnosis starts with the best information.
