There are few jobs more chaotic than that of physician, at least based on my own experience. Yes there is a schedule of sorts: hospital rounds, procedures, office patients. Unfortunately things rarely go as planned. There is a particularly sick patient on rounds who needs a temporary pacing wire placed. There are more consults than expected.… Continue reading Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos
Category: Computers & Software
A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane
My lifetime has spanned many of the important developments in the Age of Computers. Back in 1969 when I entered college, I was a frequent visitor to the Kiewit Computing Center, the lair of a GE-635 computer that filled several rooms. Students had access to the computer via noisy teletypes and a multiuser operating system known… Continue reading A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane
Futurama Revisited
Fifty years ago my parents took me to the World’s Fair in New York. The year was 1964. I was twelve years old. It was a turbulent time in American history. The prior fall John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, initiating a long period of turmoil for the United States. But it was still the era… Continue reading Futurama Revisited
Medical Documentation Should Not be Tied to Billing
The idea of starting over with computerized Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and doing them right as mentioned in my previous post has struck a resonant chord. Unfortunately designing an EHR that works may be a fantasy, due to one huge hurdle that would have to be overcome first. But it is fun to imagine… Continue reading Medical Documentation Should Not be Tied to Billing
How to Build a Better EHR
A lot has been written about how awful Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are. They are overwrought, overengineered, dreadfully dull Baroque systems with awkward user interfaces that look like they were designed in the early 1990s. They make it too easy to cut and paste data to meet billing level requirements, documenting patient care that… Continue reading How to Build a Better EHR
Configurable Android App Widget Tutorial
Developing an Android home screen app widget is not for the faint of heart. The official Android widget documentation is sketchy and sometimes just plain wrong. Following instructions online I had trouble creating a widget that had a configuration button on it and used an AlarmManager to update the widget in real time. The… Continue reading Configurable Android App Widget Tutorial
1984 in 2014
I am rereading George Orwell’s 1984. The first time I read it was in the 1960s. Reading it again I wonder if he shouldn’t have titled it 2014. The book is closer to reality now than it ever was. No, we don’t have a dictator named Big Brother looming over us. But the ubiquitous electronic… Continue reading 1984 in 2014
Software is Fragile
By now everyone has heard of the Heartbleed bug. Prior to that Apple had its “Goto Fail” bug. Magic tricks seem obvious once they have been explained. In the case of Heartbleed, the programmer forgot to put a limit on the amount of information that could be requested in a packet, thus exposing information that… Continue reading Software is Fragile
The Rent is Too Damn High. Why Does Medical Software Cost So Much?
In an era when Apple gives away its Mavericks OS X operating system for free, when completely free open-source operating systems like Linux and BSD are available, when even Microsoft is considering giving away its Windows operating system for free, one has to ask the question, why is medical software, in particular EHR (Electronic Health… Continue reading The Rent is Too Damn High. Why Does Medical Software Cost So Much?
Fair Use Justification of CPT® Codes in EP Coding
The following is a formal justification for use of a limited number of CPT® codes under the US Copyright law fair use exemption in the soon-to-be-released mobile app EP Coding. Introduction As CPT® codes are copyrighted by the American Medical Association, it is important to make the case that use of a very small… Continue reading Fair Use Justification of CPT® Codes in EP Coding