The latest technology is being used to treat patients, but now doctors are using
new technology to figure out what the treatment should be. Wireless devices are
bringing medicine into the digital age.
On a typical day at any hospital, most doctors will see
dozens of patients, read stacks of lab results and write just as many
prescriptions, then hunt down a computer to retrieve information, but not Doctor
Vera Fajtova. Everything she needs is in the palm of her hand.
Personal digital assistants, or PDAs, have become
lifesavers for doctors and helped make medicine more interactive. Providing
doctors easy access to medical information is the brainchild of Patient Keeper.
The company develops mobile applications that wirelessy link a doctor's PDA
to the hospital's computer system.
Monte Brown, Brigham & Women's Hospital:
"Just knowing where your patients are, we have 120
admissions a dayand 150 transfers, so they move
patients around, you need to know,and so you don't
have to go anwhere to find that."
Bill Cyr is a paramedic with Boston Med Flight.
In his job, there's no time to check medical books,
so his PDA is critical.
Bill Cyr, Boston Medflight: "Obviously, in the space we have in the helicopter, there is not
enoughroom for a whole a library of medical
textbooks, so we're are able to pullout of our PDAs
and look up what we need to do."
A recent survey of health professionals says using
PDAs helps improve workflow, reduces medical errors and gives doctors more time
to spendwith patients, and that certainly sounds like
a prescription for success.
