It was an American radiologist called Adam E Flanders who pointed out the obvious truth in 2008 that “vendors do not deliberately design bad software”, but there is no doubt that there is increasing dissatisfaction being voiced by clinicians, particularly doctors in the US, about the clinical information systems they are asked to use.

Those criticisms are being heard closer to home as well, particularly about the electronic medical records that are fast being implemented in most healthcare settings in Australia.