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Last Modified 8/4/99

Dear Dr Dave

I have signed up for Dr Woolly's Practice Incentive Program. He says I should use the money to buy a computer and I think I will. I read in this week's Australian Doctor that I can buy it over the net. Is this safe and what colours does it come in?

Pippa

Dear Pippa

If you are going to buy a computer there are a number of options. As you would expect there are pros and cons with each.

If it's a Sunday afternoon you can pop down to Harvey Norman. They will sell you a Compaq or Hewlett Packard brand machine and you can have it up and running that afternoon. It will do the job at a reasonable price but the components may not be of the highest quality and their after sales service may leave something to be desired.

You could head on down to your local computer shop. Those that are worth their salt will spend some time with you and sort out what type of machine would be best for your needs and price range. They may have a machine on the floor for you or build you a machine that you will get within a few weeks. If you have any problems with it, you can take it back to them and they will often be able to fix it straight away.

Companies like Dell, Gateway, Harris Technology and Beyond Computers advertise in the computer magazines. You can ring them up and order a machine over the phone. If you're a bit more computer savvy, you can "build" your own machine over the Net. Surf on down to their websites and you can select a machine from a variety of styles. If there are certain components that you want to upgrade or add in, you can choose them at the time and see immediately how much it will cost. The quality of components is usually excellent, the price competitive and you get your machine in a couple of weeks. The down side is if something goes wrong. It's a long way back to Sydney, the hot line can run pretty cold and your emails may be lost in cyberspace. If you do get through to them, they may send you a "how to" book and a replacement part (screw driver not included) and you go for it yourself. This can be a bit daunting for some "newbies".

If you're a real tech head you can build your own. You get the machine you want at the cheapest price and if a part blows up you will get a replacement under warranty within a week or two. It helps if you know what you're doing, of course.

Is buying over the Internet safe? Many of the on-line companies will let you order over the Net but ring you the next day to confirm your order and take your credit card details. Quoting these details over the phone is not entirely safe either but people are used to it having ordered plane tickets or reserved hotel accommodation this way in the past. Some of the on-line companies will let you pay by credit card through their web sites. you may be dubious about the wisdom of this, having read of internet fraud in the newspapers. The protocols for buying on line have been available for some time and are secure. The newest browsers have even more secure forms of encryption. Can you trust it? Yes, but people will feel nervous the first few times they try it. Of course, as the on-line broker eTrade says, "Someday, we'll all invest this way".

What colours does it come in? Corporate beige. If you want something more colourful, do as the iCEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, says and get an iMac.

Dr Dave

Lee-Ann Toh Wan

Dear Lee-Ann

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. Or perhaps the networkers would more properly say throughput, throughput, throughput. The options are immense and there are many more questions that need to be answered. How far apart are the surgeries? Is there a direct line of sight? How many doctors are there at the other surgery? Does your existing operating system support remote access or fat server thin client technology? Is there a machine at the main surgery for a doctor to log on to remotely? Will your existing medical packages port to client server format? Do you really want all this hassle?

Perhaps the most exciting development in databases for medical computing is the object oriented database. A patient's data is represented as a binary string and the software generates the record from the string. This format allows a variety of clinical packages to work on the same piece of data and you do not need to define your fields and tables in advance. You can also design your own clinical modules to plug into the software and capture data specific to your needs.

You could run this software over the Internet, because the only data you are pulling are the binary strings. For the moment you would probably want to stick with a dial up connection or if you're feeling a little more prosperous an ISDN.

Exciting stuff, huh! eMedicine. Someday, we'll all practice this way.

Dr Dave

David Guest, dguest@gmc.com.au

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