I worked on a healthcare IT system at one point as a consultant. I tried to the best of my ability to improve upon the UI or the software, at least for the small tasks commissioned to me. I think that most of the other programmers tried to do the same.
It was extremely difficult because the software was written over a long period of time by multiple generations of programming teams and programming styles. It was hodge-podge to say the least. Take that system and integrate it with another equally hodge-podge system. Then add a couple more hodge-podge systems to that. There were just lots of redundancies and disconnects. I did feel sorry for the people who were going to have to use that system.
I'd say that medical administrative software is ripe for "disruption" just because it sucks so badly. Except for the fact that the systems are a) huge b) require extensive domain knowledge c) are regulated d) sales of such systems are extremely political and e) there's no way to do an end-run around the administrators who are purchasing these systems. It doesn't seem very suited for a "move quickly and break things" scrappy startup.
It was extremely difficult because the software was written over a long period of time by multiple generations of programming teams and programming styles. It was hodge-podge to say the least. Take that system and integrate it with another equally hodge-podge system. Then add a couple more hodge-podge systems to that. There were just lots of redundancies and disconnects. I did feel sorry for the people who were going to have to use that system.
I'd say that medical administrative software is ripe for "disruption" just because it sucks so badly. Except for the fact that the systems are a) huge b) require extensive domain knowledge c) are regulated d) sales of such systems are extremely political and e) there's no way to do an end-run around the administrators who are purchasing these systems. It doesn't seem very suited for a "move quickly and break things" scrappy startup.