2000 health hazards - Rx2000 Solutions Institute's year 2000 training services - Company Business and Marketing - Brief Article

Software Magazine, Oct 15, 1997 by Julekha Dash

If you think foot-dragging on the Year 2000 problem can be disastrous to organizations that manage money or operate airplanes, what about those that treat ailing patients? Not only must health-care organizations worry about their database systems, much of their medical equipment also contains embedded computer chips. For example, an IV monitor, which displays the date and time, could stop pumping life-saving fluid if the underlying system doesn't recognize "00" as a valid entry.

Alan Abramason, vice president of information services at Allina Health System, a $2 billion integrated network of health-care services based in Minneapolis, says that while the health-care industry has been slow to recognize the millennium problem, he now sees more industry-wide cooperation.

Allina was one of the first members of the non-profit Rx2000 Solutions Institute, also based in Minneapolis, which supplies the health-care industry with conversion training and Year 2000-related information. One of the initial projects for the newly formed Rx2000 will be to create an information clearinghouse that contains vendor data, as well as user case studies, for solving date-fix problems in medical environments.