By now, most executives are familiar with the famous Year 2000 problem - and many believe that their companies have the situation well in hand. After all, it seems to be such a trivial problem - computer software that...
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By now, most executives are familiar with the famous Year 2000 problem - and many believe that their companies have the situation well in hand. After all, it seems to be such a trivial problem - computer software that interprets "00" to be the year 1900 instead of the year 2000. And yet armies of computer professionals have been working on updating code in payroll systems, distribution systems, actuarial systems, sales-tracking systems, and the like. The problem is pervasive. Not only is it in your systems, it's in your suppliers' systems, your bankers' systems, and your customers' systems. It's embedded in chips that control elevators, automated teller machines, process-control equipment, and power grids. Already, a dried-food manufacturer destroyed millions of dollars of perfectly good product when a computer counted inventory marked with an expiration date of "oo" as nearly a hundred years old. And when managers of a sewage-control plant turned the clock to January I, 2000 on a computer system they thought had been fixed, raw sewage pumped directly into the harbor. It has become apparent that there will not be enough time to find and fix all of the problems by Tanuary I, 2000. And what good will it do if your computers work but they're connected with systems that don't! That is one of the questions Harvard Business School professor Richard Nolan asks in his introduction to HBR's Perspectives on the Year 2000 issue. How will you prepare your organization to respond when things start to go wrong? Fourteen commentators offer their ideas on how senior managers should think about connectivity and control in the year zooo and beyond.
Evaluation of medical decision support software (MDSS)--computer programs to assist health professionals with diagnostic and/or therapeutic decisions--has not kept pace with the development of such programs. This arti...
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Evaluation of medical decision support software (MDSS)--computer programs to assist health professionals with diagnostic and/or therapeutic decisions--has not kept pace with the development of such programs. This article describes the following formative evaluation issues that must be addressed by developers of MDSS to evaluate these programs properly: (1) How can systematic feedback be obtained about an evolving program? (2) How can enough data to evaluate the program be obtained? (3) How much instruction is necessary? (4) What are the most important aspects for users to evaluate? and (5) How can the appropriate use of a developing MDSS be assured? Data from an ongoing evaluation of an existing MDSS, Quick Medical Reference, are used to illustrate the issues and to suggest recommendations for addressing them.
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