A cry for help
Browsing HackerNews I read about geniuses creating the most amazing, seamless, intuitive tools year after year in the start-up scene. The results are absolutely astonishing, and frankly otherworldly, to a person like me.
I then close my browser window and begin my work in medical research, attempting to shed light on healthcare outcomes - how to change our current practices to be more evidence-based and directed toward the concerns of the patient. More often than not this research requires of me to look in 7 different places in 3 or 4 separate electronic medical records databases for something as simple as the time a surgery starts (This is at a single institution). It is this way for many reasons, the most relevant of which is that there exists no tool today that addresses the concerns of those taking part in every element of the healthcare delivery process, and so we're left with each element picking their own favorite tool and gluing them together as best we can.
In this day and age we have more data than we know what to do with, and sadly even if we knew what to do with it (And many of us have some great ideas) an army of people would be required just to figure out where the data are at. My cry for help is probably not going to do much - we all know how confusing this system can be, even if we're not in the healthcare field - my hope is simply that all of you with this unique gift of being able to create amazing things with programming will at least give this huge problem a second thought.
If this problem were tackled you and your team will have helped millions of people receive superior healthcare delivery, and will have indirectly saved some lives in the process.