Thursday, May 26, 2011

NCPDP Telecom Island

Our esteemed President and Founder, Dr. Ross D. Martin, was recently called upon to provide his informatimusicology services for the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). You may recall that one of Dr. Martin's earliest informatimusicology works was a song for NCPDP's 30th anniversary, "The Legend of Bob the DERF."  This time, Charlie Oltman of Target Corporation was to receive the Benjamin D. Ward Distinguished Member Award. He wanted a song about the NCPDP Telecommunications Standard to work into his acceptance speech and had drafted some words to the tune of the theme song for Gilligan's Island

Dr. Martin was far too busy for such an engagement, but wanted to help his venerated colleague. They agreed to an exchange wherein Mr. Oltman would make a donation to Dr. Martin's new pet project, Launch: An Emerging Artist Fellowship (more on this in a later post) in exchange for Dr. Martin editing and recording the song for NCPDP's Annual Conference award ceremony.

Here are the lyrics and the MP3 for "Telecom Island" published for posterity.  Those unfamiliar with the esoteric content will simply have to join NCPDP for enlightment. 

"Telecom Island"
(With apologies to Gilligan and Friends)

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
Of a telecom journey
That started out with UCF’s
At N-C-P-D-P
At N-C-P-D-P

3.2 had a mighty run
Then 5.1 endured
As hundreds joined in all the fun
For a another HIPAA tour

Then HIPAA started getting rough
Our tiny DERFs got tossed
If not for the members and the fearless staff
Our standards would be lost
Our standards would be lost

Our Council set its sites on making sense of HIPAA II
Like Benjamin D Ward, to
Our mission we stayed true
Our mission we stayed true

In no time we had made the move
To version D-dot-Oh
Now we prepare for HIPAA III
We'll see how far we go

Remember this one rule
If you should let your cell phone ring
You'll have to tell a joke or dance
Or worse you'll have to sing
Or worse you'll have to sing

So join the fun four times a year
To get the chance to see
Our President
Her yeoman Staff
The Co-Chairs and the Board
The Task Group Leads
And the rest
Here at N-C-P-D-P