As someone who as worked in the within the Medical establishment, the issues you are talking about are more vendor specific. The equipment used in Lasik cases and others have been thoroughly tested, because of the fact they have to be so precise. Calibrations on these machines are often conducted before every use, or on a very regular basis. As far as MRI's diagnosing problems, that's not the case. MRI's take the pictures, and the Radiologist then interprets the MRI results. So, human error is the consideration in this case versus a software error.
IT is moving rapidly within the Medical arena. Utitilizing systems such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) for X-Rays and other radiological procedures to be available via computer versus hard copies would be one example. Also applications that properly document, bill, and track a patients travels through a hospital are becoming more and more prevalent.
What this Open Standard is driving for, is to standardize that information, so that it can be easily passed from one medical facility to another. Currently, the extensive use of Fax machines, to fax entire patient records to other Doctors, and hospitals is common. For the patient, the results are positive, because their care can be more continuous, and well documented. Having a standard format to facilitate this will be a tremendous advantage, and probably help cut down on cost in the long run.