Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

I have a dream… that one day physicians will not be judged by their ability to memorize textbooks but by their ability to quickly research and learn. Okay, perhaps that isn’t quite the way that line goes, but you get the idea. Healthcare is kind of important. People kind of rely on it. We expect doctors to have an answer to every question we can think to ask while remembering the low grade fever we had 23 years ago right before you sprained that left index finger. No pressure though.
Steve Jobs understood the importance of technology being simple and reliable. This ability and desire to be the champion for the kinds of devices that can make a doctor more effective, efficient and informed is the reason that it might be those working in healthcare that will miss Jobs most of all.
I don’t go anywhere without my iPhone and my iPad. I’ve been in IT for longer than I care to admit and I love that I can get my e-mail anywhere and anytime and that I can be alerted to network outages by text. There have been times I have had to VPN from the grocery store parking lot in order to unlock a user account or reset an FTP password, but I feel fortunate when I say that the only life or death situations I am a part of happen when my users hyperventilate because one of our servers has crashed and is down for a few minutes.
With all due consideration to the security of these devices and the safety of your personal health information (the details of which I will not be discussing here), consider what may be possible in this brave new(er) world thanks to forward thinking innovators like Jobs:
Your son breaks his arm while you are on vacation and needs to have images taken to confirm the exact location and nature of the fracture. When you return home, your family doctor will be able to access his scans and view them on his iPad without copies being made or originals being carried around by anybody.
You step on a piece of metal while helping a friend landscape his yard and you aren’t sure of when you last had a tetanus shot. Not to worry, any doctor you authorize can view your complete immunization history.
Your mother is having heart surgery and there are unexpected complications. Without having to leave the surgical suite, the surgeon can pull up copies of any and all blood-work, scans and a full procedure history regardless of the facility or location each was performed and can make an informed decision regarding how to proceed.
You move around a lot because of your job which has you changing family doctors regularly (not to mention you have now been married twice and have records under 3 separate surnames). Thanks to the implementation of a Master Data Management system, your records are automatically tied together and give any new doctor a complete medical snapshot for you including that sulfate based medication you forgot you were allergic to because you haven’t had any since you were 9.
Your newborn has a fever and so you rush to the hospital to have him examined, but once you get there your nerves are so frazzled you can’t recall the name of the medication he was prescribed the day before and what dose you were instructed to give him. With no time to waste the emergency room doctor can review your son’s examination history and prescription details.
Those things are just examples and only skim the surface of what may be possible. What about the idea of engaging the expert opinion of a leading specialist who is thousands of miles away while being able to provide every single detail of a patient’s case with no exception? Digital charting would mean the days of misreading chicken-scratch handwriting are behind us. On demand and always-current databases of drugs, contraindications, allergies, symptoms, measurement conversions and more can be searchable and within arm’s reach at all times.
So why choose Apple when alternatives certainly exist that are less expensive with fewer restrictions and controls? The answer is in the question. Apple has a trusted reputation for creating quality products that are delivered market-ready. The iOS user interface is simple, intuitive and consistent across all Apple smartphone and tablet devices (which also allows for streamlining apps through a single point of software investment and configuration). Don’t believe me? Don’t think that the iPhone and iPad “just work”? I’ll entertain discussion to the contrary when you can identify another product line that can be picked up by my 3 year old daughter, myself as an IT professional, my non-technical mother and my 80 year old aunt and used nearly as efficiently and fully by each person and customized with little to no assistance.
Before you try to convince me it’s ‘only a few minutes’ to learn this, that or the other thing on an Android device (which is non-standard by nature with regards to the considerable array of hardware and software options)… consider how overwhelmed and exhausted doctors already are. Consider the unsupported nature of an open source operating system. Oh, and don’t forget that in this case, it really is life or death…
[via MedPage Today]