I definitely agree with DocMartin and Eric on this one. There is no reason to get upset and ballistic simply because a very knowledgeable person happens to present ideas that may not be ones we would accept. G has not done anything to offend anyone and, in fact his statement about "that no exposure to knowledge offends him," did not, in my mind offend anyone else.
I was taught a long time when in a debate about with another person on a very touchy subject such as Republican vs Democrat or abortion that you gain little by trying to persuade the other person to your side, because it isn't going to happen. Rather you gain so much more by listening to his or her argument as you can keep your own view, but you will be smarter for it.
I first started with the ASP model called Logician Internet which became Medscape Encounter. It was a thing of beauty. To this day, no EMR has ever produced a prettier progress note. It was far better than it's bigger and more bloated not-ASP model, Logician, now Centricity. And, a few of my friends used it, and we could share information. I still see the day where a patient could be referred to a consultant and the patient could use their health card or USB key to give access for one day or a hundred days. This could be write or read/write. The consultant could bring up the data and then simply dictate or type a note right into the ASP.
Now when Medscape Encounter folded a lot of people lost their data. And, that is what scares a lot of people. But, that doesn't mean the ASP model can't improve. My programmer and I are already experimenting with an ASP model coupled with a server model that is constantly in sync. That is very doable.
I think if we hold our heads in the sand, we will miss a lot of chances to keep up with the Joneses. Certainly, AC got to where it is by not adding expensive bells and whistles but that doesn't mean that another vendor is going to make a smaller version of their big version and take over the market share. While we debate this, I am certain Jon is all over this.
Thanks G for bringing this information to the table. I agree with many things you are saying. On the other hand, it is only fair to say that while theoretically, the licensing may be the same, try telling those physicians who lost all their data when Medscape Encounter went under that the "ownership" of AC is not better. Sure, we may be paying to license it, but my guess is having it on our PCs is still a hell of a lot different than licensing it in Cyberspace. The key phrase here whether true or not is, "Possession is nine tenths of the law."
G, it is ironic that your links above are proving your opponents ideas valid. Both links are broken; although maybe I am missing something on the Blog one.
