A few months back I helped a friend with angina navigate a large metropolitan ER near NYC - I helped with the registration process with the clerk who was working on a system terminal (looked like a Screenman form). He finished inputting the data by moving through several screens in a very rapid fashion - entering all of the insurance, demographic and along with other data in just a few minutes - using only the keyboard.
I then went back to the very busy triage area where the systems were all using typical Windows style applications - drop down boxes, radio buttons, scroll bars and what not - requiring a mouse and keyboard. Seemed that it was far slower as the nurse would type, reach over for the mouse, click, right click, back to keyboard and so on. In one area you had to use the mouse scroll wheel to advance the blood pressure and other vital signs - i.e. you couldn't just enter numbers. The whole process was painfully slow. (BTW the first system above appeared to be running some flavor of M - at least it appeared so from what looked like a M routine file naming at the bottom of the screen) I would personally be very happy if VistA would allow for these Screenman style fields throughout for all of the text data (possibly using the ncurses library) with mouse capabilities for xterms or the Linux console when configured with gpm. That way one could implement solutions on very modest hardware - i.e. Pentium II-III with 64MB RAM. But then I am very happy with plain console applications like lynx, mutt, mc, vim - all fast, lightweight and highly reliable. If you mix that with Linux virtual terminals (F1-F7) and things like screen (a terminal multiplexor that runs several separate "screens" on a single physical character-based terminal) you can access and manage large amounts of data fairly quickly. Of course I am most intrigued with what Jim has done and find that the web interface is so comfortable with so many people - and the capabilities so rich - that it will be the eventual universal environment, simply because it is so common and capable. At this point our clinic doesn't have large financial resources but would be very interested in starting to support developers and groups who are looking to create such interfaces. Perhaps other physicians, clinic and medical directors would be interested in combining our financial resources to make this possible. Of course it would be far easier to do so if there was one identifiable company (something like a Redhat) that combined these technologies (GT.M, VistA, Apache, FreeB, GNU/Linux, Debian, Asterisk, M2Web etc...) into the medical space. Is there such a company? Is anyone planning on creating one? On Sat, May 06, 2006 at 01:10:32PM -0500, JohnLeoZ wrote: > Jim Self wrote: > . > >Certainly, the challenge at this point is to construct a complete non-CHUI > >interface to > >VistA so that potential users can choose a richer user interface than can > >be provided by a > >VT100 terminal. > > [jlz] I have for some time thought that a way forward may be available > by simply wrapping DHCP's roll-and-scroll menus in a prettier shell, > perhaps with bells and whistles available on the same screen. The > efficiencies of the old keyboard-only interface may be enhanced... and > made more attractive to decision makers who don't know what they are > talking about when the reject the simpler interface on looks alone. > > >Another example is the web based command shell in M2Web. That combines > >some of the best > >features of roll-and-scroll with the richer interface capabilities of a > >web browser. > > [jlz] At least some of the FUD about VistA is not about capability but > about appearance alone. > > I still have one Wyse terminal from days gone by. It was nicer than the > green ones because it had an amber display. > > Regards, > jlz > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job > easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members -- Ismet B. Kursunoglu, MD, FCCP Medical Director Alaska Clinic, LLC 3750 E. Country Field Circle, STE B Wasilla, Alaska 99654-6659 [EMAIL PROTECTED] voice (907)357-7240 ------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
