Is it the end of the internet cafe at medical meetings? Has the sponsored kiosk with 'free access to the world wide web' run its course? I remember the day when there were lines at machines like this. We clamored to pick up our email. Now email and other inputs reach some 80% of doctors through their smartphones. The sponsored cafe will soon be a relic of our past. ... Continue Reading about Internet Cafe – Is It the End of an Era for Medical Meetings?
Prometheus Labs and Precision Medicine
If you want a glimpse at a company putting precision medicine into practice look no further than Prometheus Labs. They make diagnostic products for personalized care in digestive disease and oncology. I use their products to diagnose and target therapy in children with inflammatory bowel diseases (crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). IBD offers a nice place ... Continue Reading about Prometheus Labs and Precision Medicine
Doctors and the Future of Touch
I wonder about the future of touch. I suffer with herniated lumbar disks. L4-L5 bulges and ruptures on occasion. If you catch me on the wrong day I have a little curvature to my back representing the spasm that makes me miserable. I saw an extremely well-referenced orthopedic surgeon in consultation recently. But through the course of my visit he never touched ... Continue Reading about Doctors and the Future of Touch
Can Machines Act Like Doctors?
Recently I spent some time watching videos of surgeon David Samadi and the Da Vinci robotic operating sytem. I began thinking about doctors and automation. I wondered, can machines act like doctors? I wondered what part of me will be replaced by artificial intelligence? I suspect that much of what I do will be done more efficiently by machine. Then I thought ... Continue Reading about Can Machines Act Like Doctors?
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
Last week I read Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants (Viking, 2010/Affiliate link). Drawing from the fields of psychology, art, and science, What Technology Wants offers a dense but thought provoking look at the way technology advances. The book centers around the expansion of what Kelly calls the technium. This is a term he has coined to describe “the greater, ... Continue Reading about What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
iPhone Attribution Error – When Patients Think the Doctor is Texting
This post from nurse blogger SaraBethRN is important. She recounts an experience where she referenced her iPhone for a lab value and was accused of texting on the job. This has happened to me on a couple of occasions. It’s the iPhone attribution error: If you’re looking at your iPhone, you must be goofing off. We sometimes associate phone use with those who are ... Continue Reading about iPhone Attribution Error – When Patients Think the Doctor is Texting