I was watching TV the other day with one of my kids and as I was surfing the channels an interview came on with Clint Eastwood. So I stopped and listened for a bit. My son wanted to know who this guy was and why I was so interested in hearing this interview. I told him that he was a famous movie star and all I got in response was “that guy?” I quickly realized that my son had no idea about the amazing movies Clint had produced over the years. To him he was an old guy sitting in a chair talking kind of slowly, to me he was the “go ahead punk, make my day” hero of my youth! so I took it upon myself to take him down the memory lane of my childhood:
Pale Rider, Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales and of course my favorite Western of all time….
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
Do you remember that one? The classic Sergio Leone western set during the Civil War with Lee Van Cleef, Clint, and Eli Wallach. I remember having long conversations with my friends trying to work out who was the good, the bad, and the ugly?
And this movie got me thinking about, of all things, my software program!!
This brings me to my topic today: The Good The Bad & The Ugly
I feel very fortunate because we have had a unique opportunity to develop our software in a way that most companies have not been able to do.
You see I am currently aware of several new and existing Blood Chemistry Analysis software products that are currently available and we have actively tested and studied each one.
In fact, it’s become a preoccupation over the past few years for our team to give an analytical review to many of these services, asking how and why each service fails or succeeds.
We have then tracked this in terms of how and why the software succeeds or fails in meeting the needs of both the patient and you the practitioner.
We have had the luxury, as a small dynamic company, to quickly implement, develop and improve upon the better solutions while skipping the pitfalls.
The entire process has been fascinating!
So, in today’s post, I want to share with you the THREE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS of Blood Chemistry Analysis Software.
THE GOOD
THE BAD
….And THE UGLY”
Let’s start with “THE GOOD”.
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THE GOOD: “OUR SOFTWARE IDEAL”
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I am going to call this the “software ideal” and then revisit it briefly near the end of this post.
“Good Blood Chemistry software should be easy and intuitive to use while providing intelligent and sophisticated results that directly assist a skilled practitioner in the determination and analysis of a patient’s condition. Simple and yet elegantly effective. Educational and not overwhelming to the patient”
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The BAD: “Overly Simplified”
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Bad software takes the route of being overly simplified and leans entirely in the direction of being a glorified Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. (NO JOKE)
It can sort the results into highs and lows according to some mathematical equations and spit out a couple of good-looking charts. Important when combined with a good brain but in the end just an extension of what a good spreadsheet program can do.
As a practitioner, this alone is inadequate to render a proper Functional Diagnosis.
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The UGLY: “OVERLY COMPLICATED”
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Now for the UGLY.. (my favorite and most commonly observed)
The Ugly software takes the approach of being so complicated it doubles as NASA’s Second Launch Center!
Advanced sets of arrays and variables not only confuse the practitioner but have confused the programmers themselves. Bell curves and meaningless abbreviations trying to breathe life into calculated numbers that are hard to make sense of.
The software sports complex user interfaces while spitting out overly detailed advanced reports that once given to your patient will have them soaring into space. 50-page reports that create confusion and more questions than solutions.
Seriously I looked at one of these the other day and had to scratch my head. What on Earth were they thinking?
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The ideal software needs to support the practitioner in determining and arriving at a proper Functional Diagnosis/assessment. It needs to tell the practitioner which of the body’s functional systems are out of balance and what conditions are potentially causing this imbalance. It needs to support you, not create more confusion.
Here is a key principle I set into place when we first started this project:
“Practitioners need to remain in charge.”
In other words, this software is not a replacement for your brain and is not a substitute for applied knowledge. Its job is to enhance your own thinking, to cover your bases, to uncover areas that you may not have seen, to empower you in the eyes of your patients, and to save you a ton of time while increasing your diagnostic capabilities.
So, I will sign off with the following.
IMAGINE “GOOD” SOFTWARE
– That is easy to use
– Supports you as a practitioner
– Informs your patients and won’t send them out the door more confused than when they walked in!!
It’s out there!!