| Hubris | Exchanging Patient Records |
All GPs who use their computers to a significant extent agree that a system for transferring the records one practice has made on its computer to another practice when the patient moves is desirable.
It is one of the most amazing features of General Practice computing that even systems wholly owned by, or controlled by the users like The Exeter System and EMIS respectively still do not permit a patient record to be removed or copied from one, and fed into another copy of the same system.
Clearly where the transfer is between different systems the suppliers have a commercial interest in making conversion difficult, but although while they say that conversion from one system to another is fraught with danger, they will in the next breath declare they can convert a practice from any other system to theirs, in bulk, over a weekend.
Therefore the problems of information loss through change of format will affect all of us, and all our patients. The case for a common moveable format is strong.
In the meantime the conversion companies should concentrate on devising incremental conversion and updating systems.
It is sensible to define a standard format which each system can then have a specific converter to and from. This is more economical than devising converters for each possible pair of systems, and then attempting to keep them up to date as the systems evolve.It is also sensible to use existing standards such as HL-7 and the Read Code, but not to the extent of not doing anything for years, until everyone agrees on how to start.