iPads in Emergency Health...

So it's been an exciting (read: stressful and emotional roller coaster ride) morning, with me taking my first ride in the back of an ambulance with Ms 1 (no details, except all is well now and thanks for all who were concerned).

After confirming all was well and took some time to settle myself... I had a chat to the ambulance officer riding up back with me who was madly scribbling notes on a clipboard about their processes to put that info into some system... Do you have to double entry into your system, how much time does it take etc? (Background: I was involved on a project with the emergency response for the local state police department years ago, hence I was interested in the perspective in a similar but equally distinct industry).

To my interest he mentioned that they scanned in the sheets to archive in their system *AND* re-key into their database system the details from the sheets filled out. Also more to my interest, he mentioned that they (Ambulance) are in the process of developing a system involving iPads which will be trialed towards the end of this year...

Was interested in seeing what the user (Ambulance Officer) response to the project was, he mentioned that it was positive for most people as it will cut down the re-entry of the data into their database system, and will cut down on transcribing errors (hard to read handwriting etc.), but then there were also concerns about reliability of data entry especially in the time-critical work of ambulance officers (nothing beats the reliability of a pen and pad, or more so a bunch of pens for redundancy :P) . I also joked about the ruggedising of the iPads, and also exposure to bodily fluids which might be an occupational hazard of being lugged around in the back of the Ambulance.

Interestingly, it will be integrated into their existing dispatch system, so that it will be all tied into their systems, which might sound a bit ambitious, but they have lots of gain from this...

Anyways, I thought cool, they will save some time with double entry etc. so good luck to them, but the penny only dropped after spending some time in the Emergency Department of a children's hospital...

I swear I was going to thump the 3rd Emergency Department nurse who asked me for the history of the past 2 days and also what happened this morning, to which I told the Ambulance Officer, the first Triage nurse, the 2nd Triage Nurse, the paediatrician who attended, and this last nurse (who seemed a bit grumpy in response to my frustration of re-telling the events)...

So I hope the trial of this project by the Ambulance Department is successful, and more importantly I hope that they allow the information to be shared transparently with the hospitals, so that there is no need to re-tell the important information multiple times, (and in turn increase the chances of missing some information), and let the health professionals get on with their important jobs, rather than struggle with the process and hopefully the new technology/systems in place will be a help rather than a hinderance...

Sure this is intended more as a distraction post for me (it's been a really stressful day for me as a dad to say the least), and any useful information/opinions or statements presented is purely accidental (and I apologise in advance... :P), but this kinda stuff really excites me about the use of technology/systems more than just playing with the newfangled devices we now have access to.

I'm all for awesome games like Angry Birds and the like (timesinks), and business productivity apps which save you time and make you more money, but think there is something about using all this technology in something as worthwhile as actually saving lives, or making the quality of life of people much better gets me all excited... :D

We have come so far, just hope we carry on pushing the limits of technology to worthwhile causes...

Where's my personal jetpack? :) (Which incidentally is over-rated... cos I don't have one yet...)

I'm living in the 'future'...

Okay, just had another accomplishment today, where I actually *finished* a book I started...

FYI, it was Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This is quite huge as due to work and family commitments, I usually struggle to finish anything that I start as a personal (just me) endeavour for the past 6 years since Ms5 came along. Also completed Portal2 *and Portal (original) a few weeks back which might have sparked off this whole new 'Finish what I start' mantra (2 in a row counts as life changing right? :P)

Anyways, won't make this a book review or a book club thing, but just sharing the reading experience on a non-dead tree book (last non-technical book read for pleasure would have been > 6 years ago)...

I read the Kindle version on my iPad rather than borrow my wifey's new Kindle 3 (Mother's Day present), and it was surprisingly quite readable. It was only until about 1/3 of the way through when it hit me that I'm living in the 'future'...

Let me explain... the author made reference to piano lessons her daughters were doing and mentioned a piece by Dvorak which was Humoresque No. 7 and said that it would be familiar to most people (I learnt piano for almost 8 years of my childhood, and had no idea), and went to describe how the first theme was a catchy opening theme and that the second theme changed to an overly sentimental theme, and how the piano teacher was trying to explain to her daughter how to emotionally connect with the piece when playing it...

Even though the author described it well, I found myself scratching my head and trying to work out what she was going on about, until it dawned on me that I can actually look it up and hear it for myself, right from the iPad! A quick Google search found this on YouTube and just like that, I got what she was going on about...

Yup, I'm living in the 'future'...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the best way of reading and there is no arguing with most purist readers about the feel and refresh rate of a dead-tree book (Kindle comparisons aside), but being to look up and experience certain things I came across whilst reading an eBook, and the convenience of doing so definitely enhanced my reading experience...

Oh, and the book was pretty good, definitely recommended, but YMMV as to fully enjoy it you may need some pre-requsite life experiences (e.g. being brought up in an Asian family/ethos or have close friends that have)... :)

The Joy of LEGO

I came across this on one of my RSS feeds today, and it is an ad for LEGO from the early 80's, the era in which I was growing up playing with LEGO.


This picture encompasses my early childhood joy of playing with LEGO, and even after almost 30 years I can relate to this little girl's look of pride and achievement, and this picture continues to melt my heart as I can see a similar look that my 4 year old daughter gives me when we build something non-descript together with LEGO...

So all I can say to all the kids out there now... is to ditch the instructions that came with all those cool Lego sets that mum and dad bought you and go and build and create something as beautiful and unique as yourselves!!! :D

[via Gizmodo]