Eric you make a very excellent point. I have a lot of experience on a motorcycle forum that experienced some pain over the issue of censorship and etiquette. The current forum is 90% self policed by the members effective use of peer pressure and a sort of group etiquette that evolves over time.
Paul, your rhetoric may be appropriate within your own office for arguing a point when selecting a vendor or a software. And you are welcome to talk to me any way you feel you should, after all I used to abuse my Jeep Cherokee pretty badly! But I think as a rule for a forum like this it doesn't all work so well. You have no control over your audience. Some may know you, like you and respect you, and accept a strident tone as intended, but others may be new to the forum, not have any idea how to take you and be unduly offended by the framework of your arguments. The whole thing with the little emoticons that are on some forums are an attempt to make up for what communication we lose in this format. Take a breath, chill, soften up a bit, then tell us how you really feel.
gkfannbulleh, hang in there with us. Paul has a 'style' that is not entirely Socratic, but he makes good points, and seems, (in my brief presence here) to contribute a lot to the forum. I am interested in your thoughts about where we are headed with software, licenses and management of the medical record. I also believe the record creates a database that has intrinsic, marketable value which we have probably already lost the intellectual rights to and which we will face continued, increasing pressure to give up. I suspect that as the 80% using paper charts slowly come on board, and do so with the vendor offering the best deal, this will increasingly put us in a position with no control of the market. An opportunity, too slow to be realized, now sure to be lost. At this time I would count me "in" as one who wants no part of a system that is internet based. That model has no appeal to me for the two reasons Paul has discussed. I want the data on my server, not someone elses, and I want to keep seeing patient even if the Net is down. We just came back from a NINE DAY ABSENCE from internet service courtesy of some problem that I still do not fully understand with Verizon. Verizon will soon be our former ISP, but the model I am considering now will include TWO ISP's so that we have a quick fix before this ever happens again.
Do you think we will reach a point where the individual Dr. may use a software of his or her preference, access data from a common database maintained by a third party (Insurance or government)? And all other providers with a legitimate excuse for access will see the WHOLE chart, my notes, your notes, the lab and hospital record all in this 'repository'?
