MEDIVista won't ease your pain, but will kill boredom

One of the things most people fail to realize about being sick is that sitting in a hospital bed all day can be really, really boring. Luckily, a company called Lincor Solutions has realized that people need something a little more engaging than plain-jane television these days, thus the MEDIVista was created. The basic premise is quite simple: a touchscreen, LCD display is mounted to the side of a hospital bed which the hospital staff can use to display x-rays or medical information, and the patient can use for entertainment. Users can watch IPTV, listen to the radio or audio books, make VoIP calls, surf the 'net, check email, as well as play web and network based games. The system also logs activity and allows users to view billing information, though at this point it doesn't look like it can play Doom, will blend, or is due to become our overlord.

[Via OhGizmo!]

[phanbouy @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:28AM]

i can already taste the hospital gruel

[Les @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:31AM]

thank you for eliminating pretty much all comments with that last sentence :)

[Stephen Wilson @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:30AM]

view your bill? who's wants to know how much they are actually paying at a hospital, when they are just trying to get better?

[Craig @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:38AM]

Maybe they're hoping that the awful UI will distract us from realizing that our morphine drip isn't really on.

[BigD145 @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:57AM]

Thanks. Please read my email and log everything I do on this thing. After that, sell the info to some data mining company without giving me any discount on services. I love you for-profit hospital.

[Fuzzmanmatt @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:59AM]

Do equipment designers go to a special school where they learn how to make things really, really ugly? Between the onscreen UI that looks like a truck stop video poker game, to the ungainly MSR on the side, to the children's toy buttons on the bottom... Why? Why can't everything be as pretty as an iMac?

[Jeremy W @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:34AM]

"Why can't everything be as pretty as an iMac?"

Because Steve Jobs simply can't shit out every single technology product. Don't get me wrong, the man is quite full of shit, but even he only has enough to take care of Apple's products.

[TestSubject86 @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:04AM]

I have no idea why it's so hard to make GUI's that don't look and feel like crap. But yes, this one does look like crap.

[Sean D. @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:40AM]

It's because GUIs on products like this are designed by either the son of the guy who invented the thing, or some hipster kid the guy met at a coffee shop who convinced him that he knew how to make a kiosk interface.

Business people and artists usually don't hang around one another, and oftentimes the business guy isn't interested in hiring the well-schooled competent industrial or interface designer after they hear what it'll cost them.

Apple pours tons and tons of money into their design department, a luxury most entrepreneurial startups can't take a risk on from the get-go.

[Shane @ Feb 22nd 2008 7:37AM]

Not every piece of equipment in the world is (or should be) designed to be 'pretty'. This device is designed to serve a very utilitarian purpose while being relatively easy to use for a wide variety of people.

Do you think the other hospital equipment keeping patients alive and/or comfortable has a 'pretty' GUI interface and slick looking hardware? Get over it already.

I do like the concept though...The new hospital in my hometown has IPTV (via very small set top box) in EVERY room. It also has free wi-fi campus wide which was cool while I spent a long period of time there with a dying relative.

[Erik @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:03AM]

I really could have used that during my week in the hospital in December.

The only thing I could do was watch DVDs on my portable dvd player. No wi-fi to be found.

[Mike Morris @ Feb 22nd 2008 3:04AM]

what, no cantenna?

[Joshua Walters @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:06AM]

Ive been in the hospital with pneumonia a few times, and I have to say I wish I had one of these.

When Im at home, I can sit at the PC all day, but since they wont let me bring my desktop in, Im kinda stuck doing without.

This would at least give me something to do other than play with my PSP, Nokia770, or watch TV.

[Thomas P. @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:13AM]

Worthless, it can't play Doom.

Rejected.

[Pismodude @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:41AM]

It "won't ease your pain" huh? How hard would it be to integrate morphine level controls, I wonder?

[phanbouy @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:47AM]

Your Morphine Access Has Expired

Please Insert Credit Card

Do You Approve This Charge of $1,200?

[Pismodude @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:49AM]

@phanbouy

Every time... then claim temporary insanity to get out of debt ;-)

[Tired_ @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:06AM]

Lincor Solutions marketing department, 2005: "We got this new project in development...let's put Vista in the name. Microsoft is using that word for their new product, maybe we can ride on the coattails of their successful branding."

Lincor Solutions marketing department, 2008: "Crap."

[Quito @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:57AM]

Enter hospital for an operation, leave with internet addiction, RSI and no money after having played "just one more hand" at an online poker tournament. Sign me up!

[ill-tempered @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:35AM]

I've seen this system working at our new Hospital in Malta and I must say it's quite impressive and a good company for people who are stuck in beds for whole days on end!

[Geqxon @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:26AM]

Yeah.... but can you watch porn on it?

[Whitelab @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:44AM]

We've had something very similar in most UK hospitals for the last few years, called Patientline. There's one by every patient bedside and they seem to get away with charging a ridiculous fee, so I can see them catching on in America too...

[jrawarren @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:24AM]

Agree - non UK based people can check out what we have to pay at www.patientline.co.uk

I think it's called a captive market!

[Phoenix @ Feb 22nd 2008 8:10AM]

Yeap, they have something similar in the Royal in Edinburgh. It's not on the side of the bed though, it's on a big arm which swings down.

It's much more comfortable because you can have it at any angle to you want. Plus if you don't want to pay you can shove it out of the way.

[nmason @ Feb 22nd 2008 7:41AM]

it is, however, backwards-compatible with Atari 2600.