Friday, November 26, 2010

Wonk - and the comprehensive health record

As the future unfolds the day will emerge when a 'wonk' - that is, "someone meant to know everything" (Prospect Magazine, Dec 2010, p. 19) is realised in software (or in a termin-ological mix with some "I'll be back" hardware).

The Internet is already envisaged as a giant global graph - a vast intelligence. The health care domains model provides a framework - a graph - to capture what someone or some group of people know about a situation. Policy, practice and values are often rightly based and measured against ideals. In health (and social-) care the comprehensive health record is the ideal. Throw information technology into the mix and you have an ideal of Platonic proportions.

Can you have a complete and ongoing record and still work smart and Lean?

I don't wonk, do you?