“Recently, on our way to a morning
meeting, Dr. Carlos Nunez and I got to talking about model railroads – a mutual
interest and hobby. We recounted the history of Digital Command Control [DCC] –
a system that utilizes digital computer technology to operate model railroad
trains. DCC was first introduced in the 1990s and dramatically changed model
railroad technology: For the first time, when running multiple locomotives on
the same track, you could move each train in different directions and at
different speeds.
Similar to most technological
breakthroughs, numerous manufacturers began engineering their own early and highly
proprietary versions of Command Control for model railroads. While this brought
the technology to the marketplace, it introduced a new problem for users as
these early approaches were incompatible with one another. We could now run
trains independently on a model railroad, but couldn’t take a locomotive to
a friend’s house with a different system and expect it to run.
Enter the National Model Railroad
Association (NMRA) who assembled a working group to develop a common standard
in model train technology. German firm Lenz Electronics gave – yes gave – their
previously proprietary protocol to the NMRA to be adopted as a standard1.
Suddenly, in order to obtain the NMRA imprimatur, all manufacturers had to
conform to single technical standard. Not only did the technology succeed but
it literally exploded. It now supports amazing lighting effects, an array of
advanced automation capabilities and even digital sound. Best of all, the
technology is fully interoperable. Some firms chose not to adopt the common standard
and eventually disappeared. But most of those who embraced the NMRA DCC
standard continue to thrive today.
It was at this point in our
discussion that Carlos asked, ‘Where is the NMRA for healthcare?’ Great
question! Today, CMS is creating incentives for hospitals to adopt enhanced
healthcare information technology (HIT), introducing new concepts and standards
like ‘meaningful use.’ But what is the future for widespread interoperability
in healthcare and what will that journey require?”
Visit here to read the full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment