Sean Nolan, the chief software architect for Microsoft’s HealthVault has written an excellent post on the philosophy/approach that Microsoft is taking with regards to HIT standards (basically supporting whatever is in use).

What I found particularly interesting in the post (at least for this neophyte to the HIT sector) is that in healthcare it is not so much about getting the most accurate data, it is about getting the most complete data. This runs completely counter to what one will find in other industries, such as finance or manufacturing, where getting accurate, precise data is absolutely critical for running a business where the only time you run on fuzzy data is in the marketing department.