Walter,

We first integrated to a large healthcare system 12 years ago, using Stored Procedures. The vendor insisted on it and it made a great deal of sense, though the prevailing wisdom at the time was that it should have been done using HL7. Interestingly, more recent integrations involve HL7 at the vendor's request when prevailing wisdom is that it should be done via SP. ;-) People are people and unless it's going to make the ship go slower, we're happy to use whatever shovel they offer to get the coal into the boiler. And then we move onto the next topic. ;-)

Regarding anecdote: anecdote is only useful to observe that "Statement X" is NOT always true- IOW to counter an assertion made by others. It's not a proof in itself. For example, an anecdote of somebody abandoning their desk to use a blackberry for everything is a useful counter to a suggestion that people need keyboards and workstations. Of course many of us do today- but look how quickly it's changing. The anecdote is not intended to "prove" that the blackberry is better or that nobody needs a desktop; it's just an example of change.