Seems as though paper has found its way into another
battle -- the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative wants to replace our old tree-based friend with a presumably much safer Web-based system. Rather than continually risking the lives of millions of people by making pharmacists decipher doctors'
illegible handwriting, prescriptions will are entered into a website, hopefully leaving less room for harmful and fatal errors. It's amazing that only "one fifth of U.S. doctors" use this kind of electronic system; by now you would think the robots that have
invaded hospitals would be the ones doling out the happy pills, but we guess that's a battle left for another day. On the plus side, hackers will now have endless access to the uppers they need for monitoring their botnets around the clock.
Amidst the recent boom in home healthcare gizmos that are enabling the elderly to better care for themselves, it's no surprise to see a trial hit the UK which allows patients to book GP appointments via their TV. The system was devised by EMIS, and was initially available "through the Looking Local portal on the interactive menus on Sky, cable, and Freeview boxes with a modem or broadband connection." Additionally, users could access the menu via WAP-enabled mobile phones, and customers in participating areas were able to "access information from the doctor's receptionist along with a password which allowed them to log in to the system." Results from the pilot program included fewer missed appointments and less time spent chatting with the ill over the phone, but we don't foresee any of these productivity savings being passed along to the consumer in the form of pounds and pence.
