MOBILE MEDICAL COMPUTING DRIVEN BY THE COMPLEXITY OF NEUROLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS
M D Segal · Neuropediatrics · 2006
In the past, medical computing was split into two varieties – simple programs that ran on palm-sized devices and sophisticated programs that ran on desktop computers. The advent of full computers that fit in a white coat pocket heralds a convergence in which it will be easier to use the full power of medical computing at the bedside. Our experience developing the SimulConsult Neurological Syndromes diagnostic software points to several ways in which pervasive computing will affect neurologists. The most straightforward benefits are in clinical practice. Having sophisticated software in a white coat pocket allows you to get advice – not just about likely diagnoses but also about other findings to check while the patient is still nearby. This allows clinicians to tap the expertise of colleagues to make diagnoses rapidly, accurately and inexpensively in ways that don't work as well if software is only consulted after the patient has left. The availability of sophisticated clinical computing will also change medical education, focusing more on general skills such as examination and history taking that are learned through case-based education, with less emphasis on details such as remembering each of the over 1000 neurological syndromes. In contrast, the effects on medical publishing are likely to involve more emphasis on detail, by collecting and publishing the wisdom of the community with greater quantitative and temporal detail. Although such evidence-based publications make for dry reading and can be difficult for doctors to remember, the information is both accessible and very useful when aggregated using software.