Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Status of the two week countdown

Any status on the two week countdown to release of version VI mentioned in Dr. Bertman's last email? I am really wondering about the release because I am still waiting to update my complete system for release of version VI. I don't want to bother with updating until the new version is out. Seems like realistic expectation will be some time next year for the new version and even further out for pm. Any hints or suggestions from anyone as > 6 months wait with lost of $$$$ on hold.

Well, since there are betas out there, I doubt it will be sometime next year.

Really willing to go out on a limb there, aren't you Bert.

Somehow I had missed Jon B's update to his post, and this led me to it. I appreciate his explanation of the process leading from beta to official release. Looks to me like it is about time to take the plunge....

I have been wondering why I don't see more people taking about the slow release of version VI. We were under the impression when we bought AC that we would have no problem with getting incentives from MC due to the fact that AC would be completely certified. That's great except the version that is certified is not released! I have asked over and over again to be a Beta and no one even will respond to my request! If we are willing I don't see why we would not be allowed to do it. We want to get started on our 3 months and have since the beginning of the year but are unable to. Is there an "in" group you have to be a part of? I came to the conference last year and did not say a word - just listened to everyone else give opinions and experiences with AC. I promise this year I will not be the same!

Robbye,

Try http://amazingcharts.com/support/i-want-to-help-myself/current-beta-version/ if you want the beta version.

Thanks, Dr Grauman, but the link only leads to the application fo beta, not the download. I too "applied" for beta twice and got no response other than the automatic one ('got your request'). I must echo Bobbye's statement that I wish the process is a little more transparent. I would have made other plans if I knew how long it would take for AC 6 to be released, even in beta. I asked on these forums and even emailed Jon quite a few months ago for alpha beta whatever will get me started, but did not get a response. Various postings that V6 was coming soon, end of December, April, etc have not be supplemented by any explanations when deadlines passed. I understand everyone is busy and trying as hard as they can, but more information cannot hurt. If Jon B updated his post, I too missed it. Perhaps he should have replied to his own post so it will catch our eye.

I don't see any limbs Jon; simply replying to George's statement.

Here is the link to Jon B.'s most recent post, which as I mentioned above was updated and might have been missed, even by those who are regulars on the board.

I know you meant any way to catch our eye, but you can't reply to a global announcement. Probably should have made another global announcement and made it clear there was a change.

I think one way to go would be to let anyone have the beta and get feedback from the unique 100.

Oops, my bad. I did not realize it was not an automatic download link (I did not try to get it myself). In which case, I agree. It should be freely available to anyone who wants to take the plunge.

Yeah, I can see not doing so in other releases, but this one is a bit different. It should be let the downloader beware.

I would agree with JackChoi and Robbye that to get V6 beta by requesting on the AC website is not working. I did that several weeks ago with no response except automatic "thank you" e-mail.
Is there any other way ?

I requested version 6 beta 3 weeks ago. There has been no response from AC

We also requested V6 for beta testing several weeks ago and have heard nothing back. Maybe they don't want more beta testers? I wonder what is happening.

Have fun at the ACUC, to all attending!

Version 6 available now at

Looks pretty impressive on first blush

Mukesh

Mukesh,

The link should read

Thanks for the heads up.

I know this link wasn't supposed to be put on these boards but I'm glad it was. I went ahead and downloaded it on my home laptop so I could get a peak at v6. I'm very relieved that it isn't a horrendously drastic change. Just a bunch of government crap thrown into my wonderful EMR.

But I'm really happy that I can now pick who can use my name to prescribe and who can't. That's a GREAT addition.

Also like the better search ability for diagnoses. Wish I could also just type the ICD-9 number in and it would bring it up as well but I like the addition. I've always wished that I could right click in Assessment, choose my templated diagnoses, and it would add the diagnoses to the problem list/orders/etc without me having to search for each diagnosis at every single encounter. I'll keep wishing.

I wish the language on demographics would default to English.

I have no clue what "white hispanic" is versus a "black hispanic" but oh well. I'm from Arkansas, we have white, hispanic, black, asian.

So we're going EMR to be paperless but then we have to print out papers for the patients about their clinical summary? Silly. I don't quite understand what I'm supposed to give to the patient from the EMR. If I'm going to do a Lap Chole on them, and I've gone over and given them a booklet about lap chole, then that should do it I would think. I'm sure that won't be good enough for the government.

But, still, pretty happy that they squeezed this government crap in here without me having to change the way I do everything.

Thanks, Mukesh, for pointing out this important resource. I would never have looked there if you did not point to it. I would love to go to ACUC but could not afford the time or expense. Now I too can use the information to better prepare for V6. I think I will call support on Monday and ask if they know if V6 release is imminent, and if not, if they would mind me installing V6 beta.

Hispanic generally refers to being decended from persons for whom Spanish is their primary language. (For a quick and dirty, and not well-thought out answer). So, in the simplest examples using visual inspection, if you look at someone and if you would have described them as "caucasion" but their sir name is Gonzales, they would be "white hispanic" or "caucasion, of hispanic descent" or etc...you get my drift. So if you have this pale skinned female patient whose name is April Gonzales, she's white hispanic. (I'm sorry, its an extreme example to just get the meaning across.)

Now the other extreme. You have a new patient, a Black Male. Says his name is, oh, what the heck, Tyrone Fernandez. Black Hispanic. Obviously. Oh, and yes you can have someone who is both Asian and Hispanic. This can be a convoluted, self-contradicting and touchy subject. I was a marketing consultant for a company that specialized in "target marketing" and we often targeted "racial demographics' so I really am familiar with how this is used and interpreted in the US at least. Not that there are not discrepancies, or those who disagree with the classifications, or with having classifications at all.

BTW, I doubt I'll ever actually meet someone named April Gonzales or Tyrone Fernandez, but hey, you never know. Those are just names I made up to use in an example. But I would classify myself as African-Amerian (or just Black American) and have dated women I would classify as Black Hispanic and as White Hispanic.

Wayne, here is my personal favorite.
My surname is Grauman. My mother's maiden name was Garza, born in Mexico as were my brothers. Being a willful child living in the US,, I refused to learn much Spanish. I am white as a Lilly. The entire ethnic thing annoys me mightily. One time when filling out some forms for university employment, I marked "Hispanic". The secretary looked at me and said "You are? How wonderful!! We get points!"

This will all be fixed the day there is only one checkbox for "mongrel."

I just want one default checkbox that says American.

Once we quit this crap, we can move on.

I guess there are certain populations who have a higher prevalence of disease so that's useful. But, jeez, my from secretary trying to figure out your classification? Like I said, four categories is all we know.

Well, my sirname is, it think, Scottish? I would need to check again. Oh, no I just did a google I think its Ireland. So I have multiple caucasian ancestors probably traceable to the UK if I really tried, most certainly multiple to various countries in Africa if I could trace it, and one of my paternal great-grandfathers was Native American.

I refer to myself as "Black American".

Remember the concept of "race" is quite artificial. I didn't make it up. I know some of how it is used/defined in the US. It was done differently in some other countries. These classifications were generally defined and implemented to make it easier to decide who to discriminate against, and that decision would vary depending on politics and economics. But that is really not a appropriate discussion for this board so I'm gonna quit.

I agree. But apparently this is not the policy at AC, since the version 6 download links have been deleted in the posts above. Only available to attendees at ACUC, it seems. Possibly the "two week countdown" may slip?

If the issue is that AC doesn't want to field multiple support calls for the version 6 beta, fine. Simply state this on the download page. Some of us try the new upgrades in VMs or non-production machines first. Posting reports on these boards have often been the first indications of bugs. The bug reports on version 5.1.x is why I am still using 5.029 in my office -- and these bug reports certainly didn't come from AC initially, they were reported here.

Its not my intention to tell AC how to run the software development cycle. But really, the people on these boards are AC's most ardent supporters. They deserve some trust.

I too found it strange at how the whole thing happened. There are different ways to look at it, but one way is that there are people in California who couldn't make it and will feel slighted since they were unable to make the conference yet are users of the program.

If we were a month away from the release, I could see not wanting it out, but I think posting it on the website is a guarantee people will download it. It is much like putting a bone in front of a dog and walking away and expecting the dog not to go after it.

I, as you John, think the development cycle is rather strange. While much larger companies can't afford to just throw up a Beta to 30,000 customers, I think AC can do it differently.

Say, 5.029 is the official release. Not alpha or beta. You are using it, and given you are up to date on your support contract, yoiu get full support. Subsequent updates, which should be in the opinion of AC will be very near the final release could be available with the understanding that it will not be supported or, at the very least, only email supported. Users could then report bugs on one forum which would be entitled Beta reports.

v6 could be put out in much the same way. Maybe after one month of Beta testing. Users could then use it and multiple feedback would occur giving AC an advantage most companies don't have. Limited support would be available with most of AC support concentrating on v5.

To be honest, I test it on VM as well, but it is not until you use it on a day in and day out basis that the bugs will be found. And, while users like you and I may not use it in production, with 3500 users, there are plenty who would.

I may be way off on the support for it. Possibly, there could be 20% of the support staff that work specifically with v6.

Sit, stay, no bone. This had worked for the past two weeks. This puppy is getting hungry for number six.

That is too funny.

Rover, look, go get the sticks. But, don't come back without v6.

Jon is going to shut us all down.

This thread has covered some ground, and I think the question of how to handle betas is an important one that deserves more discussion.
I hate to derail the fun, but how about the original question: What is the status of the two week countdown that Jon B described in his post? Are the serious bugs still being reported on v6 or not? Any word from ACUC on the official release date?

My BEST guess is that Jon wanted the users there to give it a whirl. Now that the ACUC is behind us, I would think that it would be released some time this week but not necessarily the official release. That is just a guess. I do not have a hotline.

He did open up the beta to all at ACUC.

The post was put here elsewhere, although it was supposed to be for the attendees. Oops, should have read earlier in the post, didn't note that it was removed.

No statement as to when it would be official, but my guess is that it will be soon. The staff is fully supporting V6.

The previews of V7 / practice management looked good but that will be probably end of the year.

Who here actually remembers when this concept, suggtion first came up as a topic of conversation??? Wasn't Myself and Leslie who first started make noise about such a thing as early as 2006 sometime????

"Anticipation is Making me wait, it's keeping me Wai, aiting..."
Cue Heinze 57 bottle with Kid looking up the spout shaking bottle..

Paul

Oh Please, oh please, oh Please..... Come on already.... Darn MU v 6.0 gov't regs... in not for this "requirement" we'd probably be beta testing and test driving the PM V 7.0 by now instead...

Paul! Where you been. I agree completely. I hate MU and all the other government crap. They come in 15 years too late and, as usual, just change the entire landscape.

What they should have been working on was HIPAA-compliant Internet connections between offices.

I want to download V6 and play with it. Why can't I. I beta tested other versions. I couldn't go to ACUC this year.

I've been lost in financial meltdown, Crazy as all hell Grizzly Bears with Lipstick Hockey Mom backstabbing and false rumors of the worst sort hell, fighting my kids school district to rid ourselves of the worst district super to come along perhaps ever in the State of NY if not even the entire country, including but not limited his Obvious Nasty Vindictive Nature peaking with me having to hire a lawyer to defend myself from collusion of a local town cop (on district payroll too as Chief Security Office as well) to strong armed in fear for their jobs employees, including missing Discovery evidence of security video from the day in question almost a year ago now.... That and IBS of the worst kind keeping me "Glued to My Seat" might we say from all the above related stress.... Is that enough crap for one man's life... I have also been busy coaching my son's team while being personally attacked by said Lipstick Wearing Sarah Pallin Wanna Be Grizzle Bears.... It's been a real treat of a year around here to say the very least....

So anyway, is there a final verdict on this AC verses XP SP 3 issue worth taking a chance on. Seems that some of my most PIA XP Pro SP 2 issues are best cured with hot patches and other repairs in SP 3...

Hoping all is well with you too Buddy,
Paul

OH PS: MU is just a means of allowing the Gov't to capture all of our medical histories and have almost unlimited access to that data with personal identifiers still attached, since HIPAA was re-written under the post 9/11 Bush administration, no less the Patriot Act itself... The gov't can mandate us to share our patients data for the moment and we are restricted from even informing our patient that some gov't agency or law enforcement part came snooping around and took a full copy of your records.

This was reported on NPR, so this is not crazy Paul going off on some tiraid this is real and the present state of our once actually functional democracy... But once they are all in those regional interconnected servers all bets are off. Some modern J. Edgar Hoover is going to have a field day scouring throw citizens and opponents, "Subversives" medical files looking for something to hold against them or leverage them with.... Some AC users like myself and dear MIA Roy tried to sound the warning bell but not enough people got upset enough to speak up and do something about it... Where is Howard Beale when you need him???

Gotta Run. Game 3 of the Lord Stanley's Cup is on in a few minutes and I need to finish my back-up and get home to watch with my favorite little 10 year old goalie.... Talk to ya later..

Paul

This old dog can so learn old tricks. I looked and found that Jon did update his broadcast. The beta is there for all to download now, for those who missed it.