Characteristics of the software for computer applications in medicine

The requirements of clinical medicine which have tended to make the design and implementation of software for hospital computer systems more difficult than that elsewhere, are discussed in this paper. Specific constraints on the software for selected computer-assisted activities in a hospital environment are examined in considerable depth. It is shown that since some of these activities have counterparts elsewhere, hospital computing can benefit from the accumulated experience in dealing with similiar problems in business and scientific environments. The argument is put forward that developing countries, with their characteristic problem of acute shortage of skilled manpower in both medicine and computing, should initially concentrate on applying computers to these activities alone. Furthermore, medical education in such countries should incorporate programmes relating to computer technology in general and the software aspects in particular.