Analysis from the Bottom Up | The Data Model That Nearly Killed Me
http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the economic stimulus package that appropriated about $20 billion for heath information technology ("Technology Gets a Piece of Stimulus", New York Times, January 25, 2009. The American Rec

Medical personnel at urgent care and the hospital who interacted with me all used a version of the same electronic health information system (the “system”). It became clear that everyone was fighting that system. Indeed, they wasted between 40% and 60% of their time making the system do something useful for them. The system kept everyone from fulfilling their duties – the health information system did not help medical professionals perform their duties.

scary story, not sure this can be blamed on the data model though; there are probably a dozen layers between people and the data model (including traiining/management acceptance) which have a much greater impact; points are well taken though

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the economic stimulus package that appropriated about $20 billion for heath information technology (”Technology Gets a Piece of Stimulus“, New York Times, January 25, 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Subtitle A—Promotion of Health Information Technology, details the epically massive government program to digitize and network health information.) The law makes a job for yet another bureaucrat to oversee the vast program - is this change we can believe in? It defines rules for health information standards by designating a new standards board - everyone desires more data standards and standards groups. The law also explains how to test systems built with federal money but it does not explain how to measure semantic validity of information - garbage in garbage out! Good luck with all of that Mr. President.