Bioterror Early Warning Internet System
from the will-we-use-it dept
There’s an internet based “early warning” system to alert hospitals to possible bioterrorism attacks that some claim can be rolled out to hospitals across the country in 60 days. What it does is interface with a variety of different hospital systems already in use, and makes decisions based on symptoms – and not a diagnosis. Then it compares the results to other area hospitals. So, if a lot of people start showing up with rashes and fevers in a certain area, the system will alert people to check for smallpox. From that description it certainly sounds good. The problems are that hospitals (rightfully so) are worried about letting this internet based system access private patient records. Also (and the article doesn’t get to this point until much later), the system was built partly by Oracle. Not that that makes it any less valuable, but it does make you wonder how much is real about it – and how much is hype to sell more Oracle products.
