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| '''1) Is Mumps a serious limitation to complete EHR functionality, code maintainence, HL7, or PMS interfacing?'''
| | #REDIRECT [[Is_Mumps_a_serious_limitation_to_complete_EHR_functionality%2C_code_maintainence%2C_HL7%2C_or_PMS_interfacing%3F]] |
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| There are several major commercial EHRs that use MUMPS. In fact,
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| the language was developed expressly FOR the health care
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| environment. There are far more limitations (and serious ones at
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| that) in most other languages and especially strict SQL
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| Absolutely not. I will go one step further than Cameron.
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| I have heard that M is the #1 language used for EHR's.
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| Epicare, which just contracted for EHR for Kaiser, is based
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| on M, for example.
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| [Rick Marshall]] replies: | |
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| How many completely functional EHRs can you name that are not written in
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| MUMPS, whose functionality even comes close to VistA's? As far as I
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| know, MUMPS is the only programming system designed specifically for
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| medical systems development. Standard MUMPS cannot be used to generate
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| sophisticated graphical interfaces, but it can be used to communicate
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| with programming languages that do. No language does all things, nor
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| should, nor can. Programming requires mastery of multiple languages,
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| and the core language must be carefully chosen. The best reason for
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| using Standard MUMPS as VistA's core language is that it is decades too
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| late to do anything else. VistA is already written in Standard MUMPS,
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| and it took twenty-eight years to get this far. Replacing Standard
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| MUMPS at this point is an irresponsible waste of resources that could
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| instead be used to easily extend VistA to save lives. It is like
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| arguing that brick is passe, so we should shut down New York City for
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| fifty years so we can remove all the brick and replace it with something
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| more popular. Replacing Standard MUMPS to improve code maintenance (for
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| example) is like replacing my DNA so I can learn to play the
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| flute--unnecessary and irrelevant. Standard MUMPS is VistA's DNA.
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| Honestly, though, why does anyone who is not a programmer care what it
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| was written in? What is Mac OS X written in? How about Microsoft
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| Word? Google? Quicken? The Sims? Do you feel competent to evaluate
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| which programming language is ideal for a given problem domain? After
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| twenty-one years of programming practice and study, I do not know beyond
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| my chosen field of medical software. I certainly do not feel competent
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| to choose among surgical instruments. I could spend time trying to
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| teach nontechnical people how to evaluate programming systems enough to
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| understand why VistA had to be written in Standard MUMPS (something even
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| most programmers evidently do not understand), or they could spend a
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| fraction of that time teaching me what they need VistA to do for them.
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| If I can get VistA to do all those things for them, then in the end who
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| cares what language it is written in?
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