[X4U] X-serve vs. Mac Pro as server

[Jim Robertson]

On 1/24/07 5:46 AM, "Philip J Robar" <philip.robar at gmail.com> wrote:

> I checked the net and FileMaker's website. I can't find any reference
> to it being ACID compliant. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID). I
> can't imagine using a noncompliant DB for any business, let alone
> something as important as medical records.

The link you gave me is dead, but I did read the Wikipedia article on ACID.
As best I can tell, ACID ( Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and
Durability) are ideals for transaction processing by database management
systems, but at least the Wikipedia article doesn't indicate that there's
any official standards body that judges individual database management
engines as "compliant" or not. In fact, the Wikipedia article links the ACID
concept to an article about a failed effort at legislating networking
standards (OSI) that supposedly left the ISO with a tarnished image.

Perhaps we're just mixing acronyms. I mentioned that FileMaker (the company)
claims its products can be used to create internet-accessible databases that
are "HIPAA" compliant. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, a bloated piece of legislation that would be better
served if somehow we could wring it into the acronym HIPPO. It started life
as an effort to permit people to take their insurance with them when they
changed employers. That's long been forgotten in a headlong rush to protect
personal health care data. Much is left undefined by the statute, but there
are legions of consultants who we can pay to come to our office to make
suggestions such as the following (we've been told each of these):

1. You can no longer file your charts in alphabetical order.
2. You may no longer address patients in your waiting room by their full
names (my mother was a VERY proper New Englander who would never dream of
her 40-something son daring to address a 70-something "grande dame" just as
"Mary").

There certainly is merit in assuring that private information stays private,
and I believe that some consensus IS emerging regarding what is acceptable.
For example, the largest HMO in the US encourages email communications
between Health Plan members and their physicians but requires each plan
member to acknowledge that email is insecure communication and request the
right to communicate in that fashion nevertheless before the HMO will permit
such communications to occur. In "mom and pop" practices, there probably ARE
no such standards as yet.


Jim Robertson
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