He spoke at the OSHCA meeting in Los Angeles last year. Well.
He also handled the Perens question well.
I recommend the book, not for you and I but for the bean counters.
But a multi-author onw will do no harm, there is a lot to write about. I may have to do one on Open Source in medicine, and even that leaves spaces for nurses, Physios, receptionists....
The key point is that you do something to _all_ the monkeys, not just the one that goes for the banana.
Usually a firehose - all primates dislike being hosed with cold water.
So later, when the new monkey comes in, sees breakfast and goes to climb up and get it the _other_ monkeys stop him.
Next time a monkey is replaced, he joins in.
Iterate... After a while no monkey has been hosed down with a firehose, but all know that you don't go after those bananas.
I've usually seen the story used as an illustration of management rumours propagating, in fact as an explanation for why the NHS is so bad at getting IT into action - mention Wessex Regional Health AUthority and see managers develop prior engagements.
Our definitions of criticality and advsable behaviour may differ. We are both right, of course.
I'm a medical doctor.
My desktop computer is critical.
I need to look up stuff from our internal and external knowledge stores like the Dermatology advice (no URL offered by me!), and national electronic library for health GP Notebook and the US NIH, University of Iowa virtual hospital, that sort of stuff, while I'm dealing with patients.
In due course I may need to order (we say request) tests or further opinions which are accessed via a browser.
I think I need a browser on my critical computer.
I can do it by using the VNC session I maintain to the Linux machine on the network, and running the browser on that, but that makes cut and paste, and triggering a browser from a database noticeably more difficult.
Opera 7 is nice but I am disinclined to put any new version of a browser on a critical computer. Other cautious types won't have been inconveienced greatly either.
I like mouse gestures, but I don't know what to make of the new spatial navigation feature. yet. Last time there was a serious browser security problem KDE got Konqueror fixed by evening,Opera had fixes on one platform after a day and another platform after a couple of days, and Mozilla was about a sgood.
Many of my colleagues were still using the only major browser that took a week before anyone admitted they owned a problem, when the fix eventually came out.
What I am unhappy about is the insidious introduction of the NHS number (maybe not entirely unlike a social security number for American viewers?) as a citizen ID number.
Without really resolving the question of whether we want, acept or dislike intensely the idea of an ID card, we are likely to get this hung on our medical records master indexes, and then before it dawns upon everyone, we may have lost confidentiality to an extent similar to Americans with insurers and HMOs.
IANAL but notice does imply being told first, not after disconnection.
Remote access/roaming desktops
on
Corporate KDE
·
· Score: 1
VNC is good for giving access to your desktop from wherever you are. With ssh to encrypt the connection, or with the TightVNC derivative, it looks good for using even outside the corporate buildings.
It does seem to be easier than X11, and particularly if you have some sort of mixed economy the ability to have applications running on several operating systems presented to you on the machine you are at seems nice.
A specific use for it would be as a doctor does his rounds, his desktop would be present at each wall-mounted display - using a swipe card, token or other means of identification and tracking rather than signing in separately each time I hope.
VNC lets you do anything you can do from the desktop, and things you need physical access to the hardware for are no harder with Linux than other windowed oeprating system environments based on the model worked out at PARC Xerox.
In her article at http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.h tml
the singer and song-writer Janis Ian discussed several aspects of this situation.
You do actually have the VA system - VistaA, which is free software and source under the US FOIA (I'd like one of those here).
I was in LA earlier this month, at the OSHCA meeting Open SOurce Healthcare Alliance, which has been working for three years on this and similar ideas and practice. Help is gratefully received...
http://www.oshca.org/
VistA is maintained by the Hardhats, http://www.hardhats.org/ and has recently been ported to run on Sanchez' Open SOurce (GPL) reimplementation of MUMPS, or M as it is now called. So it is possible to have, and in fact I have on my laptop here, an Open Source hospital information system including the physician order entry system, running on a GPL'd database management system of long pedigree and industrial stability, on top of a GPL'd Operating System.
You can get GT.M from Sanchez or SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/sanchez-gtm , VIstA from the VA or WorldVista, and then merely face a cliff-like learning curve for the domain knowledge, the programming language M, and the huge and complex system itself. But that is just work, no philosophical problems at all.
The problems I am looking at are less concerned with the actual technical programming or the development of Knowledge Service and decision support components although the latter is a wicked problem and the former non-trivial and not finished yet, but on the socio-political side. Realistically we need healthy companies to make a living by aggregating, installing, supporting, developing, and generally looking after our systems. What we need to get rid of is the lock-in to a vendor whose expected lifespan is an order of magnitude shorter than the lifespan of the data, the organisation that depends on it, and the patient - I bang on about "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis" on that.
When I arrive at work I hand it to my secretary who synchs it to the front office machine.
Thus my staff can see what I've booked myself for, and they can book me things, whether I am in or out.
Doing it with paper didn't work well, and this does.
We share the view of the diary around the network using VNC, but one day I must get it synched to Evolution or something.
A lot of my colleagues working in hospitals use theirs to exchange lists of things to do, and keep useful amounts of reference material on them as well, but my key use is shared diary.
Slashdot Mirror
He spoke at the OSHCA meeting in Los Angeles last year. Well.
He also handled the Perens question well.
I recommend the book, not for you and I but for the bean counters.
But a multi-author onw will do no harm, there is a lot to write about. I may have to do one on Open Source in medicine, and even that leaves spaces for nurses, Physios, receptionists....
The key point is that you do something to _all_ the monkeys, not just the one that goes for the banana.
Usually a firehose - all primates dislike being hosed with cold water.
So later, when the new monkey comes in, sees breakfast and goes to climb up and get it the _other_ monkeys stop him.
Next time a monkey is replaced, he joins in.
Iterate...
After a while no monkey has been hosed down with a firehose, but all know that you don't go after those bananas.
I've usually seen the story used as an illustration of management rumours propagating, in fact as an explanation for why the NHS is so bad at getting IT into action - mention Wessex Regional Health AUthority and see managers develop prior engagements.
And if nobody else said so, thanks.
I'm a medical doctor.
My desktop computer is critical.
I need to look up stuff from our internal and external knowledge stores like the Dermatology advice (no URL offered by me!), and national electronic library for health GP Notebook and the US NIH, University of Iowa virtual hospital, that sort of stuff, while I'm dealing with patients.
In due course I may need to order (we say request) tests or further opinions which are accessed via a browser.
I think I need a browser on my critical computer.
I can do it by using the VNC session I maintain to the Linux machine on the network, and running the browser on that, but that makes cut and paste, and triggering a browser from a database noticeably more difficult.
Opera 7 is nice but I am disinclined to put any new version of a browser on a critical computer. Other cautious types won't have been inconveienced greatly either.
I like mouse gestures, but I don't know what to make of the new spatial navigation feature. yet.
Last time there was a serious browser security problem KDE got Konqueror fixed by evening,Opera had fixes on one platform after a day and another platform after a couple of days, and Mozilla was about a sgood.
Many of my colleagues were still using the only major browser that took a week before anyone admitted they owned a problem, when the fix eventually came out.
What I am unhappy about is the insidious introduction of the NHS number (maybe not entirely unlike a social security number for American viewers?) as a citizen ID number.
Without really resolving the question of whether we want, acept or dislike intensely the idea of an ID card, we are likely to get this hung on our medical records master indexes, and then before it dawns upon everyone, we may have lost confidentiality to an extent similar to Americans with insurers and HMOs.
And all for ostensibly reasonable purposes.
IANAL but notice does imply being told first, not after disconnection.
It does seem to be easier than X11, and particularly if you have some sort of mixed economy the ability to have applications running on several operating systems presented to you on the machine you are at seems nice.
A specific use for it would be as a doctor does his rounds, his desktop would be present at each wall-mounted display - using a swipe card, token or other means of identification and tracking rather than signing in separately each time I hope.
VNC lets you do anything you can do from the desktop, and things you need physical access to the hardware for are no harder with Linux than other windowed oeprating system environments based on the model worked out at PARC Xerox.
VNC: Real VNC
I'm European, and can wander from country to country using my cellphone. Except the US. Is this networking following the worldstandard or the US one?
In her article at http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.h tml
the singer and song-writer Janis Ian discussed several aspects of this situation.
I find that rolling the wheel moves the page up and down - should it do something else?
But Windows Solitaire and Notepad both run under WINE.
You do actually have the VA system - VistaA, which is free software and source under the US FOIA (I'd like one of those here). I was in LA earlier this month, at the OSHCA meeting Open SOurce Healthcare Alliance, which has been working for three years on this and similar ideas and practice. Help is gratefully received... http://www.oshca.org/ VistA is maintained by the Hardhats, http://www.hardhats.org/ and has recently been ported to run on Sanchez' Open SOurce (GPL) reimplementation of MUMPS, or M as it is now called. So it is possible to have, and in fact I have on my laptop here, an Open Source hospital information system including the physician order entry system, running on a GPL'd database management system of long pedigree and industrial stability, on top of a GPL'd Operating System. You can get GT.M from Sanchez or SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/sanchez-gtm , VIstA from the VA or WorldVista, and then merely face a cliff-like learning curve for the domain knowledge, the programming language M, and the huge and complex system itself. But that is just work, no philosophical problems at all. The problems I am looking at are less concerned with the actual technical programming or the development of Knowledge Service and decision support components although the latter is a wicked problem and the former non-trivial and not finished yet, but on the socio-political side. Realistically we need healthy companies to make a living by aggregating, installing, supporting, developing, and generally looking after our systems. What we need to get rid of is the lock-in to a vendor whose expected lifespan is an order of magnitude shorter than the lifespan of the data, the organisation that depends on it, and the patient - I bang on about "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis" on that.
When I arrive at work I hand it to my secretary who synchs it to the front office machine. Thus my staff can see what I've booked myself for, and they can book me things, whether I am in or out. Doing it with paper didn't work well, and this does. We share the view of the diary around the network using VNC, but one day I must get it synched to Evolution or something. A lot of my colleagues working in hospitals use theirs to exchange lists of things to do, and keep useful amounts of reference material on them as well, but my key use is shared diary.