A Victory for Technology

box of soap, anyone?

$20 billion for digitizing health records.

I don't know what the spending is on health research in the public interest, so I can't compare.

Digitizing health records is a big service to the medical research industry. Might be seen as a benefit to all. The whole idea of drawing on a big database seems to make sense. The problem is, when you apply statistical analysis to data sets collected under ??? multifarious nebulous protocols you get results that look impressive but may not actually mean squat. The capacity to generate impressive statistics from sloppy record keeping will not a healthy world make.

Until medicine starts rigorously following scientific reporting protocol (acknowledge sources of error, to delimit conclusions drawn) the application of "mass digitial medical records" to medical science is a questionable expenditure.

Goverment should put medicine under the microscope, IMO, before investing the money.

It will help people a lot. So many eldely people see 3 or 4 Doctors and they get comflicting meds making them drug addicts.

Also doctors can get better advise faster from top doctors.

Of course you are right! Good record keeping is a must for good health care, and I hope the benefits you pointed out are well enjoyed by all involved.

I was only making a point about the research uses, the potential to generate statistical correlations which appear to be "scientific" but which are nonsense, from large digital data sets which are collected under non-uniform conditions and with non-standardized reporting practices, and which may or may not omit the data on which a report is based.

On the plus side, there's no excuse for this when records go digital: no "physical space" issues for storing (or communicating) your diagnostic images or test results. So it can be a plus for the science as well, if it's done with that in mind. Large data sets are an advantage iff the actual data can be and is assessed.

The stimulus package is designed to be a pure political document driven by politicians who have no idea how to service the people who voted them into office.

First of all the published package as a whole will no be made available to the public for consideration until tomorrow 3-4-09.

However, if you believe it will help all you have to do is to see which areas of the stock market are rising. Last I checked the market dropping like a rock and no markets were rising including the technology markets that are supposed to be stimulated.

In short I think the whole package is a load of crap, but I will wait until is is made public and I read it before I tell you how I really feel.

PS
Major companies and suppliers (including the technology companies) are beginning to lay off employees and shut their doors. So the second part and maybe the worst part of this disaster is just beginning.

"Technology fared well" ..in the... stimulus package.

...and we keep reading in other blogs that scientists are too principled to line up at the trough. There is going to be a political agenda attached to all this stimulus and it is going to be advancing the NANNY state.