No. The problem is, this task depends on a LOT of contextual information that simply is not in the medication list. Like what is the patient taking from another doctor? Is the patient taking their pills? Did they stop due to: unknown reaction, felt better, forgot, rationing the pills because they cost too much, or didn't feel like it? Are the pills actually helping? Are there any conditions which may affect the effectiveness of the pills? (using pills as a catchall for whatever is prescribed). Sometimes the complete medication list is not stored in the computer or even in a collection of files across computers, but can only be revealed through patient-doctor interaction. And it's not just the pharmacist who performs reconciliation, rather this task may be performed at different levels of care by focusing on a different facet of the patient. Despite how useful computers are, there's a lot of process they simply cannot replace; streamline: maybe, replace: no.

That sounds like how most grant-funded research occurs.

True. When it's 2-3 people, an individual tends to put a lock on it until they've done all their changes (2-3 days max). If the group becomes larger, it gets placed on a website; People edit the document and upload their most recent copy. Ultimately, there is some group coordination that goes on beforehand and Word becomes a poor-man's version control. Dealing with these hassles in an organized fashion is still cheaper (for time) than requiring everyone to learn LaTeX+svn.

Nice. I look forward to that update. I hope it's compatible with docx; that would make it easier to transition between the two.

Ya, but when everyone around you uses word or google docs in a collaborative fashion, it's much harder to convince everyone else to go with revision control+latex. WISYWIG+built in revision control ends up being the path of least resistance when including non-engineer folks in the loop. Plus it's easier to edit someone else's content without having to parse the LaTeX syntax every time.

If I wanted superior formatting control, I'd use LaTeX. The primary reason I'm stuck with MS Word, and sometimes google docs, is due to superior collaboration tools: change tracking, multiple views for revision and final draft; identifiers for whose made changes where (provided the userid has been setup properly); notes/comments in the margins.

For the record, I haven't taken the recent version LibreOffice for a spin. But from what I remember of OpenOffice, these features were not that functional. I thought OpenOffice was a decent piece of software, but it's still based on prior definitions of what a documenting software has been, rather than what it could be.

Probably not, but I wouldn't trust any line of code I write in a large complex system, without doing system-wide unit tests and real-world tests to ensure nothing broke. I think what some of the above posters are getting at is that system complexity, not kernel-coding complexity, prevents you from plugging any developer in to just patch things up. We don't view kernel coding in awe, we view the systems as a whole in awe as well as the developers who built it from the ground up, because it takes time, experience, and expertise, on par with being a trained surgeon WITH 30+ years of experience.

Now we can have the blue cube of death!

"Fair share" is a term concocted by the conservative to twist the reality of the situation. Since a number of legislative rules have passed, more and more wealth has become concentrated into the hands of the wealthy few. When I say wealthy, I don't necessarily mean people making a 6 figure income, more so 7+. This would be known as the trickle up theory of economics. This is considered bad because it slows down the economy has a whole since fewer people can afford to purchase stuff and wealthy people don't necessarily spend it fast enough. You do make a semi-valid point that a large percentage of the population does not pay taxes, but this is because those people are at or just below the poverty line. Most of their income is being funneled into loans, groceries, and other necessities. The government doesn't tax them because it's not as effective as taxing the rich, percentage wise. You could tax several poor people at a rate of 30% but this probably wouldn't bring in the same income as taxing the mega rich at 1%. Logistically and ethically, taxing the poor would be bad PR, harder to accomplish, and wouldn't provide the same yield. (disclaimer: I'm biased towards returning the tax levels to Clinton-era levels, which is probably about a 3 percentage point hike to 39%).

People are certainly justified to protect themselves. But, the OP is referencing a story in which an individual went out of his way to stalk a teen boy and shoot him. Race may or may not have been an issue, but the situation certainly seems like it could have been avoidable on the shooter's part. The kid was simply carrying skittles and talking to his girlfriend on the phone. Also, the shooting did not take place on the shooter's property (maybe near it but not on it). All of this suggests that the shooter was not acting on self-defense. Maybe a jumped up sense of paranoia, but not self defense. Though, I'm sure more details will come to light when this goes to trial.

They already exist. They're considered marriage, paintball, and the GOP primaries.