Terms for the Technologically Timid

The Orange County Psychologist

January 1994

Michelle M. Weil, Ph.D.

Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D.

Technology is here to stay and so is managed care (so we hear). And never the twain shall meet, you think.....not so. For the practitioner of the future, technology and psychology will soon become not so strange bedfellows. This first article in a three-part series begins to streamline the connection between psychology and technology by defining some of the basic technology "buzz words." You will need to know how to be "technologically conversant" to find your way along the managed care "super data-highway."

Stay put, and leave the driving to us!!

Hardware

This includes any of the physical parts of a computer. This is anything you can touch and feel. This means the actual computer itself, the monitor (that small TV-like apparatus with a screen), the disk drives, the hard drive, the modem and the printer.

There are two basic types of computers. IBM (or IBM compatible) and Macintosh. Each has its virtues and limitations, depending on who you ask. Both will run all the kinds of "software" described below.

Software

This refers to all of the programs that tell your computer what it is supposed to do.

There are many types of software but most people will only use a few types in their practices with any regularity. We start by going over some basics.

• Word Processing is the most common type of software. A word processing program allows you to compose, edit and print text in the form of letters, reports, articles, etc. It is really a highly automated typewriter that saves you lots and lots of time if you do much writing. Most word processing programs will check your spelling and even offer synonyms from a thesaurus when asked. Some word processing programs will even correct your grammar!
• Office Management Programs keep your patient records, post transactions, print receipts, print insurance claim forms, track referral sources and provide monthly, quarterly and yearly income reports. Some even let you write your process notes for each patient on the computer.
• Desktop Publishing Programs allow you to combine words and pictures onto piece of paper. This is the type of program Joanne Buchanan uses to produce this newsletter. Desktop Publishing programs even make it easy to put your writing into columns like a newspaper and to have wonderful pictures and graphs appear anywhere in the column. With a desktop publishing program you can produce flyers, office brochures and newsletters.

Input (Inputting)

This is the term that computer people use to describe putting information into a computer. When you write a letter, you are inputting information. When you tell the computer that you saw a patient today and that the patient paid you $125.00 for the session you are inputting information into a computer.

Download

This is when you transfer information from something "bigger" to something "smaller." For example, when you write a letter and tell your computer to print a copy, you are downloading. When you write an article on your computer and tell it to put it on a disk to send to Joanne you are downloading.

Uploading

This is when you transfer information from something "smaller" to something "larger." For example, when Joanne gets the disk with your article she uploads it to her computer. Or, when you buy an office management program and you want to put it on your computer you upload it.

User-Friendly

You are the "user." A software program that is purported to be easy to use is called "user-friendly." Today, most software attempts to be user-friendly.

Hard Copy

This is another term for a paper or printed copy of something that you write on a computer.

Operating System

This is what runs your computer. It nearly always comes inside your computer and it functions automatically so you don't need to think about it. There are essentially three types of operating systems:

• MS-DOS is the most common operating system and is usually packaged with IBM, Dell, Packard Bell, AT&T and most other computers (the MS stands for Microsoft, that humongous company that has made Bill Gates one of the richest men in the world and the DOS stands for, yep you guessed it, Disk Operating System).
• Apple Macintosh is both a type of computer and an operating system. This operating system is graphical in nature and has the user (remember, that's you) point to pictures to tell what he/she wants the computer to do next. It is considered one of the most user-friendly operating systems around.
• Windows is a relatively new operating system that allows you to use a graphical operating system (like the Macintosh uses) with an IBM computer or with an IBM-Compatible Computer. Machines that are not manufactured by IBM, but run all the same programs are called IBM-Compatible Computers. They usually do not cost as much.

Joanne Buchanan uses an MS-DOS based language on her IBM-Compatible computer. We do most of our writing on a Macintosh. Recently, we have learned how easy it is to convert something written with one operating system to the other. So now, if you submit an article on a Macintosh disk (like Dr. Martha Rogers did with her article in this issue) we can convert it to an MS-DOS disk so that Joanne can "upload" it into her computer. This saves her from having to type it all in from scratch. Likewise, if Joanne gives Dr. Weil something to edit on an MS-DOS disk, she can converted it easily to a Macintosh version so that she can make changes and then convert it back into a form that Joanne can use on her computer to print the final copy.

Disks

Disks are used to store information either in the form of software (the programs that tell the computer what to do) or the results of using the software (letters, patient information, etc). Disks come in many types, but the most common are "floppy" disks and hard disks. More about this in the next article.

Hard Drives

Hard drives provide storage. Think of a hard drive as a garage, which typically comes attached to a house. The hard drive is usually housed inside the computer so you never really get to see it. Hard drives are actually quite impressive. They can hold massive amounts of information in a very small space. A typical hard drive can store the equivalent of about 40,000-80,000 pages of writing! We have a hard drive at home that we have used for about five years and we still have well over half of the space left!

So, was that too bad? Is your heart doing flip-flops? We will teach you how to deal with that later in this series. For now, the bottom line is that if you are going to keep up with the mental health world you are going to need to "technologize" your office. This simple primer should start you on that path. Next month we will talk about more buzz words and take a more in-depth look at technology and you, the Psychologist. See you next time.