User talk:KirtWalker

A recent discussion near the top of the Talk:MUMPS concerns me. User:Spinoza1111, self-identified as Edward G. Nilges, seems far from neutral in his personal opinions of MUMPS. This does not mean he won't be able to edit neutrally. He may provide useful balance in some parts of the article. Don't overreact to his edits, but do keep MUMPS on your watchlist. See his comments at http://www.developerdotstar.com/community/node/279. BTW He says he is downloading a free MUMPS and intends to familiarize himself with it before editing the MUMPS article. Dpbsmith (talk) 14:05, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I edited a number of statements about MUMPS by someone who clearly has never used MUMPS. I did not see this note or discover the source that you note above. Mr. Nilges certainly has a burr under his saddle about MUMPS.

I am a long-time user and expert in MUMPS and I have a formal education in computer science when it was still electrical engineering at Rice University in the late 60's then I did programming and systems design in the Sakowitz Computer Lab at Baylor College of Medicine in assembly language, dubugging at the binary light console and worked up to research database systems and then MUMPS in its early stages of development. I watched the fascinating discussion of standardization of dialects and the ANSI standards process in the 70s and the brilliant minds, well-grounded in computer science theory, who created the standard MUMPS and implemented it in a number of separate operating systems. MUMPS was the whole operating system then as not much else was offered on small machines then.

I went to medical school to find something interesting to do with computers and continued to use MUMPS for awhile after medical school. The MUMPS system market got eaten up by one vendor, Intersystems, which pursued large systems and did well, but hid the MUMPS nature of their systems and integrated it with SQL (M/SQL) and VB, etc. It lost its simplicity in all of that context. I used to be thoroughly familiar with DOS, frustrated with the obscurity of simple things in Windows. I had migrated to Linux and was learning the details.

I had given up on MUMPS as not being commercially viable tool and proceeded deliberately to learn and try a number of languages- from VB, java, javascript, C, perl, PHP as well as SQL as a backbone. In the process, I have almost completed a second masters degree, this time in Health Informatics at the School of Health Information Science (SHIS), in the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, where none of the HI faculty had any concept of MUMPS, but were versed in traditional SQL/relational database perspectives as the core of development thinking, but with appropriate criticism of the human computer interfaces (HCI) of most existing medical software.

Then, several events changed my mind. The first was GT.M. Fidelity had purchased one of the MUMPS operating systems (Patterson-Gray/Sanchez) because they used it heavily in their banking transaction systems. But, they also decided to make it Open Source and free on the Linux operating system. Thus, I became aware of a very solid, reliable MUMPS system. The second was a movement by a number of individuals and small firms to make the VA software system, which runs all of the VA hospitals and clinics (as well as the Indian Health Service) in a totally electronic EHR that has been working for years. It is written in MUMPS and FileMan. FileMan was designed to be a "programmerless" system extended by its users- physicians, nurses and medical professionals who were amart but not programmers. FileMan implemented all the typical capabilities of SQL with full interface and support. FileMan had the tremendous advantage of being extensible in many ways, by MUMPS code still in the context of FileMan, when the flat file/relational database just didn't fit the medical world.

I became aware and became affiliated with a small clinic which had succeeded in installing and adapting the vast VA VistA software on a GT.M/Linux server and a bunch of Windows clients. I plunged into the code (ITS ALL OPEN SOURCE MUMPS - VistA, FileMan and the FileMan Kernel which handles low-level elements of messaging, email, system management, user security etc.) and was convinced these are solid bones in need of a new front end, which I have in my head.

Now, I believe I can accomplish these things that are in my head and have been for some time, practicing in the ER and wishing I had this perceived tool to use to make my professional life much better.

I wax almost poetic, at least the feeling - I thank you Nilges for reminding me why I love to program. I'll show you when it's done instead of arguing theory (faith), although I enjoy that too, but later.

--Kirt 12:43, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

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