BBC medical records story

[Adrian Midgley]

On Wednesday 06 March 2002 10:02, you wrote:

> You're joking, right?  Compressed digital storage of radiographs
> starts at around 1-2 megabytes per picture (depends on the picture).
GPs don't get Xrays, usually.  We get a typed report.  I've always though=
t=20
this is lame.

> > so there is plenty more space for text records - and an A4 page of
> > text takes 5K to 10K bytes.

> Except that almost all of it is handwritten. =20
Almost (very very nearly totally) of mine is typed, not handwritten.  Not=
 all=20
my colleagues do th esame, and in the hospitals of course it is mostly=20
hadnwritten by exhauseted juiors with three things on their minds and now=
ehre=20
to either sit or rest the paper  -  or by consultants who may feel that a=
=20
momnet spent writing more clearly is less efficient than several minutes =
by a=20
committee of others trying to read it later.
Scanning that stuff is of modest usefulness.

> I don't think there's a
> viable alternative to scanning the whole lot, at quite high quality.
> Images are the thing: radiographs, photographs, micrographs, etc.

Micrographs rarely make it out of the lab - in fact they stay on glass sl=
ides=20
as specimens.
--=20
=46rom one of the Linux desktops of Dr Adrian Midgley=20
http://www.defoam.net/            =20