Indeed a puzzle…
Sorry to harp on about this, but I do believe this is an extremely serious issue.
The US Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HiMMS) recently put out a call with Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) for an Interoperability Showcase as part of their annual conference. Included in the notice is the following [my emphasis].
“Making it all work is not unlike putting together a puzzle. A critical piece of the puzzle is ensuring not only that that the health IT systems used are standards-based but can seamlessly exchange and effectively utilize the healthcare data provided. This is IHE’s role; to provide the framework in this puzzle by connecting or integrating all of the healthcare-based standards and build an inoperable healthcare system for the future. “
This is the sort of error that occurs when too much emphasis is put on getting the message delivered at the expense of the quality of the content.
Now just try to imagine, under this new well-connected e-health world, if this was your diagnosis from a recent CAT scan of a suspected tumour:
“INOPERABLE” !!
Let’s work on the real puzzle.
Well, it wouldn’t be too bad unless there waSNOMEDication that would be effective…