So, there’s a small blurb about Bill Gates saying in a particularly long winded fashion that yes — he would trust Vista with his life, because its secure and stable enough to “run life support” systems.
Well, I can’t help but chime in with my own opinions on this.
At the hospital where I’m currently working, they use a electronic records system that is also integrated into the imaging systems, where you can view imaging stuff “on-line”. That is, unlike my medical school days, you can actually read Chest X-rays, CT scans, and even MRI’s at almost any desktop that has the electronic records system.
Pretty cool, no?
I thought so initially. After all, I spent the majority of some entire rotations in medical school running between the ward and x-ray department finding, and retrieving chest films.
What’s funny is how I came across Bill Gate’s own comment about running “life support systems” on Vista. First of all, that’s not really how “life support systems” work — they don’t run, as far as I know, on operating systems. They’re self contained machines that help patients breath (ventilators).
However, what IS true is that most hospitals that I’ve worked at DO use Microsoft XP. And most hospitals DO have some kind of electronic record. And if you’re interested in talking about stability, MOST are just fine.
What is quite funny — but not in a “ha ha” sort of way — is how at SOME facilities, when using specific programs to view x-rays or CT scans, the program sort of hangs. You DON’T get the blue screen of death, but I find myself using the alt-control-del solution to try and close the program process — and eventually get hit with the “this program isn’t responding” window.
Imagine that.
Trying to read a chest x-ray, or review some imaging with other colleagues and *that* window pops up.
“Whoops … better restart the whole program!” (looking sheepishly).
I’m not sure if its fair to dump on Microsoft; I’m not sure if that kind of thing is a Microsoft or OS level issue. Maybe its a program level issue.
But if it IS an OS level issue regarding stability of programs and so on, its funny how Billy G would state that he’s confident it could run life support, when it has a difficult time running much more mundane programs (mundane being a relative word).
February 3rd, 2007 at 6:17 pm | Permalink
The life support systems are probably running an embedded real time operating system like vxworks (what was used on the mars rover) or qnix or something.
February 4th, 2007 at 1:41 pm | Permalink
Yep. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the middle of a conference with a client only to get that lovely “program not responding” pop-up somewhere about half way through.
February 4th, 2007 at 7:09 pm | Permalink
Heh Tony,
I was in a hospital in Tampa recently on a business trip got appendicitis and they had a system in the ER that dispensed supplies. It was run by XP and I cannot tell you the number of times it locked up and they had to hard reboot it .. And this is just a supply station, not life support ..
February 4th, 2007 at 7:15 pm | Permalink
Jimmy that is thoroughly scary news.
On a somewhat-related topic, I heard that in an effort to monitor costs, on every single item or piece of disposable equipment that is used, there is a bar tag that is scannable.
The bill to the HMO’s is itemized down to each foley, tissue, and wad of gauze that might be used during your stay. While the metrics nut in me thinks that’s somewhat fabulous, it is also somewhat horrifying to my universal-health care sensibilities.
Cheers
Tony.
February 4th, 2007 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
Yeah, thats what this system was all about. The staff entered the patients name before they could open the doors and then the systen recorded every last piece taken out to charge the patient .. got to account for all those band aids …
February 26th, 2007 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
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