Most of the problems with medical software is the doctors and medical administrators themselves. They get so used to be worshiped as Gods That Save Lives, they assume that they Know Everything About Everything. I've seen more software and business talent quit the medical software field than any other....
I quit the medical field because it's incredibly hard work and very difficult to succeed because of the additional hurdles (regulation, entrenched interests) unless you are a large corporation. And large corporations suck.
My friend tells the story of being in one meeting with the various doctors, and one of the elder ones made a snide comment about another doctor 'not being here long enough to understand how things are done in this place' - to which the reply was 'I've been here for 17 years'.
Myself personally, I worked as a neurology tech for four years, and the doctors I worked with were a broad mix. Some of them were the sweetest people you could hope to meet. Others were such money-grubbers they directly said to the pharmaceutical reps "don't give us 'gifts', just give us the money directly". In that broad mix were doctors so awesome that they write their own mouse drivers, to doctors that behaved just as xradionut mentioned.
Doctors are humans too, there are a lot of them, and they run the same kinds of personalities as other humans.
My doctor had to sell her private practice and join a medical business group, just to keep up with the new insurance/government regulations. Healthcare in the US is insane...
Seems like the perfect situation for making a software workflow and simply not permitting information to be input into Field X. Etc. Anyway, in this case, I think the software could be improved (modulo my slow learning).
Now, in general, I think that software can help us make the bureaucracy / regulation more tolerable by helping to convert medical intent into both medical action and medicolegal documentation.
Anyway, your point is very well taken.
Are you sure who was who? :)