Posted by --CELKO-- on 10/06/79 11:34

>> I DO NOT tell them that they have a complete misunderstanding of anatomy and disease and
that they should take a year's worth of classes before they consult me
again. <<

If they come to you and tell that they have applied some leeches and
taken arsenic to cure what they think is cancer, but now need some
help with the incantations, what do you do? You can tell them that
what they are doing is just fine and give them an incantation. We call
that a Kludge in IT. Or tell them that what they are doing is going
to do harm in the long run? Or do you try to solve the real problems?


>> Perhaps you should be less concerned with adhering to rules someone else taught you and more interested in creative solutions that solve real world problems. <<

Those rules are based on math and logic; I got to see the formal
proofs. Your trade is more statistical than mathematical. If IT is
done right, it is a hard science and not "cowboy coding" and kludges.


When you do a surgery, do you always try to find a "creative solution"
without any research to see if your approach is in the literature and
is known to fail? No. You look for proven solutions and methods for
problems that have been solved before. You follow procedures. You
fill out HIPAA documents to prove that you did not do any "cowboy
surgery" on the job.

>> I am trying to catalog medical devices to allow other surgeons to best choose the right tool for the job. <<

Matching tools to jobs is what is called "configuration managment" in
theIT literature. You can buy packaged programs for it which will go
thru a series of questions to produce a weighted list of options.

Ever use Mycin or other computerized diagnostic tools? They were
performing better than 80% of the humans in the 1980's, but I do not
know what level they are at now (I woudl assume some improvements now).
You might be able to use one of them with your data instead of
re-inventing the wheel. That would a terrific advantage -- someone
else will maintain the software and distribute it, hospitals will
already have people who know how to use the package, etc.

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