Lame (lām) adj.
- Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible:
- Weak and ineffectual; unsatisfactory:
I just saw some seriously lame legislation proposed out of New Jersey by some ill-informed congressional lackey MANDATING that all EHR’s be certified through CCHIT. This is absolutely ridiculous. Do you really want to outlaw Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault in the Garden State? I mean get real!
The unintended consequences of such legislation is highly problematic and well described by David Kibbe, Fred Trotter, Ignacious Valdez, Neil Versel, and others. I have seen CCHIT make great efforts to correct this and make the process more open but they have a fundamentally flawed and constrictive position – that they alone can bestow the quality seal of approval on software.
They don’t realize, of course, that any attempt to subvert innovation will be futile. “Life always finds a way” (or in this case innovation). The notion of a new type of communication platform that will emerge as a result is already underway. Designated “Clinical Groupware” by David Kibbe and others or a new “Communication” platform by Myca or American Well, new tools will continue to emerge that defy current descriptions. Are you sure you want to lock down into today’s technologies through an already arcane certification process?
I would strongly argue that standardizing features and functionality is not the problem. These should be allowed to freely evolve and grow per the needs of users and the skills of developers. What should be standardized is the interoperability requirements of data, the database requirements, and related infrastructure elements that will enable the data to be truly liberated. These standards will do more for the industry than any other single legislative or policy initiative. This is where we need government help to force agreement on specific principles where the choice is not as consequential as just making a decision (driving on left or right side of the road is irrelevant; but it is clear that we need to make the determination!).
Legislative mandates for features and functions = #FAIL!
Scott Shreeve, MD 
Too ironic. Read this post while listening to the CCHIT Certification proposal (new paths to certification). Attended one of these yesterday, and clearly CCHIT sees themselves as the only certifying body. Trying to determine what is valuable for our company. Not excited about the price tags they publish for certification.
I absolutely agree. Interoperability is the key here, so that no matter what, all physicians and facilities are able to share information. I’ve seen other articles about this, and I am still not clear on the reasons identified to march down this path, but I don’t think that is leads to progress. Eliminating options such as Microsoft HealthVault or Google Health doesn’t improve the process, it impedes progress. We’ll all be following this one closely.
Lots of of bloggers not very pleased with this new iPad.There was just too much hoopla regarding it and lots of people got turned off.Quite frankly, I can actually see great deal of the cool potential of the device. Third-party soft for working with music, games, newspapers and magazines and FFS books, all sorts of cool stuff, but IMHO they just didn’t really sell it right (excluding the books). It feels kinda unfinished