Working at a research facility affiliated with a U.S. government hospital, this pilot fish becomes acquainted with ICD-9 codes for the statistical classification of diseases.
But it bothers him that the codes allow for reporting an issue but not for reporting resolution: There’s a code for having high blood pressure, but none for returning to normal, and there’s a code for a broken right wrist, but none to indicate that it has healed.
So in a review meeting with the researchers, fish asks about their assumptions: “Since there is no ICD-9 for ‘no longer has high blood pressure,’ how do we differentiate the two conditions, just-not-taking-medicine and no-longer-needs-medicine?”
After some discussion, one of the MDs speaks the sad truth: “In my 10 years of clinical practice, I’ve had maybe one person make the required lifestyle changes to get off those medications.”
Feed the Shark! Send me your true tales of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.