Real-Life Communication
You might think medical informaticians stay glued to the computer screen all day and never communicate with people. Well, think again.
"I find people in Salt Lake sharing ideas with people in Germany, Japan and Australia -- working together on problems that concern health-care professionals all over the world," says medical informatician Kathy Sward.
It may not be face to face, but there's no doubt computers have made communication a whole lot easier. Where we once kept information on paper and stored it in desks and filing cabinets, we can now electronically store information on the virtual desktops of our computers.
We can store vast amounts of data that can be quickly accessed, and easily communicate with people thousands of miles away.
But this ease of communication raises a number of issues. For instance, just how many people should see these files we keep? What if it's your private medical information that just anyone can look at? Just how private is private?
You're working at a hospital in the medical informatics department. The hospital is working towards having medical records electronically filed. That's raised hackles in some quarters. So, management has called a meeting to explain the pros and cons of the filing system, and the precautions that can be taken to ensure privacy.
You're the one who has to provide this information. You don't want to forget any of your points in the heat of the meeting, so you decide to write three lists: one for pro, one for con and one for security measures being taken.