Sixty years ago " Marketing " was the buzz word for aspiring executives making their mark in the commercial world and a leading Guru coined the " KISS " phrase to warn against the trend to obfuscation when explaining how a system works.
Unfortunately obfuscation seems to have developed into an art form, specially when it comes to implementing government policy. The moment somebody dreams up a new plan to be foisted on the nation - a veritable army of movers and shakers crawls out of the woodwork and begins to implement rules and regulations - that even Einstein would have difficulty following.
So it is with the very well intentioned " Tele-Health " initiative !
The idea was to simplify the process of country GP's getting their patients a consultation with specialists. As things stood, the country patients usually had to make a long journey to the city and suffer both inconvenience and expense. It seemed less wasteful to set up a tele-conference in which the patient and his or her GP spoke directly to the specialist from the GP's consulting rooms. The GP could order any tests required by the specialist at the local hospital and perform physical testing as the specialist watched.
The Federal government has spent $ 7.2 million to get this scheme up and running, and 1200 country GP's have each applied for $ 6,000 grants to buy the software deemed necessary by the bureaucrats to access the scheme.
The problem is that this software is so complex that many doctors have been forced to undertake further IT training to be able to navigate through the system - and many have found that a better way already exists.
The commercial world produced SKYPE - and this fits neatly into the " Keep it simple - Stupid " paradigm. All the GP's and the specialists have to do is download the free SKPE software onto their computers and they are ready for those tele-conferences that connect their patients with advanced medical help.
All that is needed is a computer with both a camera and sound system - and the Tele-Health system is up and running.
It seems to be a fact of life that anything the government plans seems to get bogged down in complexity and endless rules and regulations. Unfortunately, there are many in the bureaucracy who think they have to justify their existence by taking the longest journey between any two points - as seems to be the case with the official version of Tele-Health.
Perhaps what is needed is a placard nailed to the wall above every government employee's desk - asking - " Does it meet the KISS standard ? "
It could be a way to solving our budget deficit problem !
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