The assessment that you will produce this week is an analysis of the hardware platforms and IO devices that are in place within the IT system. It is likely that you will encounter many different data processing platforms organized by task and user. As you did in the previous week, seek to understand why a particular platform is selected for a particular function and also become knowledgeable about how the data flows between them (if it does). In healthcare organizations you will often encounter integrated systems that may make this research more of a challenge but devote the necessary research time now to make your final analysis easier.

Describe the role that each of the following hardware platforms performs (as installed) in the delivery of healthcare services:

Mainframes
Minicomputers
Workstations
Personal Computers

Describe the use of input and output devices connected to these processor platforms. Include handheld IO devices, document scanners, bar code readers, etc.