Future Plans

Abstract

After reading our hair-raising story, one should ask, “Why become involved with such a program in the first place?” It is quite apparent to me, three years later, that our problems resulted from being the first ones into this area, and having to feel our way along from beginning to end. Since our vendor, or any other vendor for that matter, had virtually no experience in developing a minicomputer-based laboratory-information system, the unique problems we faced within the lab, and between the lab and the hospital, had not been totally elucidated prior to starting. We hope that through this book, we can provide some insight into the obvious systems problems that exist among the elements of this complicated set of environments. Our hope is to help future designers and builders through the rough stages into the smoother and gentler mode of operation which we now experience. All of our original problems have been resolved through the use of the communications system. It is delightful to sit in the laboratory and watch our phone lines on a high volume morning light up with personal calls and virtually no inquiries for laboratory data. All of our initial objectives have been reached, and we are now in the position of looking toward the future and raising our sights a bit higher for additional development.