Swiss hospitals rely on fax to transmit Covid-19 data

4 points by uselessphd 6 years ago | 3 comments

Hospitals in Switzerland, allegedly one of the most innovative countries worldwide, heavily rely on fax to transmit Covid-related data to the federal government.

Article in German: https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/coronavirus-das-bag-kommt-bei-erfassung-der-faelle-kaum-hinterher-ld.1547359

I've been told by a reliable source that someone came up with the idea to use deep-learning to extract the information from the faxes.

Is this tragic, idiotic or completely normal?

aurizon 6 years ago |

Fax, being a handshaked and unshared network has hung on in many applications due to it's security. Hard copy at each end = filing pain in the ass. Also good for Japanese/Chinese writted ideograms

mhdhn 6 years ago | |

Except when it goes through fax-to-email?

aurizon 6 years ago | | |

Yes, then the intrinsic e-mail risk vectors come into play