| October 8, 1999 | 03 00050 61 99100802 |
Ms. Andrea Gerlin
Reporter
agerlin@phillynews.com
Philidelphia Daily News
Street address
Philedelphia, PA Zip
| Subject: | Medical Mistakes, NASA, Intel |
Dear Andrea,
Have you connected the dots between your articles on the High Cost of Medical Mistakes, NASA's loss of a $125M space craft that crashed on Mars, and Intel's announcement of another delay releasing its 820 chipset. They all have a common cause that shows "communication," "expediting," and "problem handling," mainly compound error over time and distance. Our greatest risks are secretes in the mind formed by meaning drift, commonly called "limited span of attention," in the age of information overload. You might query our friends in cognitive science about the startling phenomenon that is becoming more, and more evident in the rush to cell phones, fax, email and constant meetings. See what you think...
Sincerely,
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod Welch
rowelch@ibm.net