computers in medicine

kona

can anybody give me examples of where computers are used in medicine, ive a rediculous presentation, which involves this topic and has nothing to do with my degree and im totally lost
and can sombody give a opinion of where they think computers may be used in the future with medicine???
cheers:D

tallaght01

they're used to give us 3D and 2D images from scans.

they give us instant access to lab results, and help us plot trends in a patients results.

Xrays are now usually put onto a computer, and the pictures can be accessed from anywhere int he hospital very quickly. Much better in an emergency thatn waiting for a porter to bring an xray film to you.

In the UK, they are being used to book appointements in GP surgeries for patients...ie patients and docs have access to available times and dates online. This saves time, as the patient doesn't get a letter 3 weeks later telling them to come to hospital, and , say, march 5th. But they can't make it on march 5th, so they ring the hospital who go looking for a different appointemtn, which is all very time consuming. (This system is crap and doesn't work. But your tutor is unlikely to know this. It's called "choose and book" if you want to google it.

In the diagnostic labs, most of the machinery is heavily dependent on computers.

We're heavily reliant on computers in medicine.

2Scoops

This doesn't take much of an imagination tbh - computers are needed to run almost everything.

Presentation joke: doctors check their e-mail too.

Chunky Monkey

tallaght01 wrote: »

Xrays are now usually put onto a computer, and the pictures can be accessed from anywhere int he hospital very quickly. Much better in an emergency thatn waiting for a porter to bring an xray film to you.

Wow that's cool, I didn't know that.

tallaght01

Chunky Monkey wrote: »

Wow that's cool, I didn't know that.

Yea, makes life a lot easier. I remember an xray going missing for 2days after our intern said she'd seen it and it was fine. The rest of us wanted to have a look at it to make sure. But as we couldn't find it,
we took her word for it.

When it turned up again, there was a pneumonia on it.

Also handy when u have a sick person in A+E. The radiographer will often come down and do your fils. then they ring the resus bay fone and just say the film is on the screen. You open the xray icon and there you have the xray. Dead handy.

Vorsprung

In Vincent's, the new building houses most of the outpatient depts, and each room has a computer. Pretty handy when the patient's there and you wanna check old lab results/xrays/CTs etc. Was in the cardiology clinic the other day, they can show the patient angiogram clips - pretty handy for explaining blockages and potential procedures.

Now...if they could follow the James' way and make filling out blod forms a thing of the past...

Tree

tallaght01 wrote: »

In the diagnostic labs, most of the machinery is heavily dependent on computers.

We're heavily reliant on computers in medicine.

Yup, the labs do be all wired up to the last. the machines are controlled by electronics, the results are calculated and sorted w/ the appropriate other results for a patient. the quality control is tracked using computers to make sure nothing goes out of whack. some gps can get their results online instead of waiting for the post too, depending on your gp and their lab of choice.

Chunky Monkey

Do they have those online pictures in Ireland? I've only worked as a ward clerk in a private hospital and there you can only get the radiologists report on isoft. In the public I've seen one intern in particular always rushing around with an x-ray folder under her arm. I'd love to sit her down, bring her a cuppa and a Jack Johnson album. Poor macca.

littlebug

Telemedicine.

Example: non emergency x rays are taken in Clifden and relayed online to the radiologist in UCHG. In theory results could be back in minutes (in reality it's a few days but still a lot less than if you went in to uchg to have it done).

It saves people having to drive to Galway, negotiate the traffic and roundabouts, find parking and then sit for hours in A&E. With an appt system in Clifden people are in and out in minutes. It also saves having to use up an ambulance to get older people (in-patients) in and out of Galway to have e.g chest x rays.

There are many many different applications of telemedicine globally.

Chunky Monkey

When you say relayed do you mean the picture is put online?

tallaght01

If you wanna see where there's a potential disaster in terms of computers and medicine google the NHS spine.

This is a proposed central database where the medical recods of every patient in the UK will go.

As any computrer system used by the NHS previously has been as leaky as the titanic's undercarriage, this has caused huge anger amongst doctors, nurses and patient groups. If it's implemented, it is caimed there is a very real risk of third parties hacking into paeples' medical records.

Stepherunie

Most of Ireland has a neruoradiology system now.

Ct scans are sent via pacs to Beaumont or Cork to be checked rather than the patient being sent when they may not be need to be.

They can actually be sent to the radiologists home pc so they can do it on call at home too.

Very few radiology departments are truely pacs orientated in Ireland though, most use CR and DR then print to film.

Also given the standard of most monitors used as general monitors around a hospital they're not of high enough quality to properly read x - rays and important pathologies may be missed.

To adequately view an x- ray light should be around 40lux behind the person reading the x - ray - ambient lighting levels are far higher in most wards.

So it's handy as hell - but until things are updated - not great.

Dr Galen

tallaght01 wrote: »

If you wanna see where there's a potential disaster in terms of computers and medicine google the NHS spine.

This is a proposed central database where the medical recods of every patient in the UK will go.

As any computrer system used by the NHS previously has been as leaky as the titanic's undercarriage, this has caused huge anger amongst doctors, nurses and patient groups. If it's implemented, it is caimed there is a very real risk of third parties hacking into paeples' medical records.

while I'd agree that the NHS systems have been pretty leaky, when done properly, an electronic patient record could be a godsend and lead to the integrated healthcare that this country so badly needs.

as regards security, the present system is little better. Charts go missing all the time. To demonstrate this my old health informatics lecturer, who was involved in pilots of the EPR system in Ireland, demonstrated this to a sceptical hospital manager. He walked into medical records room. Found his own chart waked back and presented it to the CEO person. no questions asked.

Obviously EPR systems would need to be pretty watertight but thats possible in this day and age.

wheresthebeef

lets not forget the electronic computer systems that control the supplies of blood transfusions. nurses and doctors need to scan out blood using their hospital ID card and a computer records the timings and the units taking and for which patient.

also, tallaght has a completely computerised system for specimen testing. you can fill in the request on the pc and then simply print barcoded labels for the specimens to attach to the samples. much quicker and less likely to get lost or defaced.