NurseWeek: Techstat: Health technologies will help do the work for you TECHSTAT

Health technologies
will help do the work for you

By Curtis Pond
July 31, 2000


	You've read the article. Now tell us what you think. Related Sites Contact Madge Buus-Frank Contact Diane Corcoran Previous TechStat columns What are the best ways to implement new technologies in the workplace? Privacy is king Online classes are interactive, but can leave you feeling unplugged So you want to be a know-it-all nurse

Getting a patient to take his or her medicine can be difficult. Wouldn't it be helpful then if the medicine did the work for you?

Scientists expect medicine to do just that with the help of microscopic medical devices that are placed in pills and swallowed by the patient.

The tiny sensors could then relay a patient's vitals to the care provider, warning them of any harmful side effects. The sensors also would time release doses of a particular medication as needed.

"We can imagine a world in which new drugs are developed, along with their monitoring sensors and releasing actuators guaranteeing their safe and effective use," say Gaetano Borriello, Ph.D., a professor of computer science, and Roy Want, Ph.D., an embedded- systems scientist, in their article on embedded technology in the May issue of Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Talk of such technology generally sends up a red flag from nurses who feel the hands-on approach to health care is being intruded upon by gadgets and gizmos. They're right to be worried.

But at the same time, an extra hand in the exam and surgery room, even if it's invisible or mechanical, could prove to be a valuable asset in the future.

"In a decade, we will look back on current therapies and see how primitive they really were," says Madge Buus-Frank, MS, RNC, ARNP, a neonatal nurse practitioner at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth and Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, N.H. Frank also is the co-founder and principal consultant for Dynamic Neonatal Solutions, a firm specializing in innovative technology for the neonatal intensive care unit.

"What impresses me most about future technologies is that it will help to synthesize all the data we collect as nurses," Frank says. "We're constantly extracting data from patients, but that data isn't useful information until it can actually be analyzed."

Here are some innovations on the horizon that are worth being analyzed by you before they help do it for you:

Artificial Intelligence: Computer enhanced decision-making will give health care providers advice on diagnosis and treatment.

Smart Cards: These "computers-in-your-pocket" will store any information you program them to carry. The Health Passport cards are already being used in North Dakota, Wyoming and Nevada to make it easier for low-income families to track their benefits.

Super Senses: Emerging technologies will give nurses and other health care providers an extraordinary advantage when it comes to using the senses to make a diagnosis. Electronic noses, ears, and infrared goggles will be able to pinpoint subtle changes in the body that could potentially be dangerous.

Doc on a Chip: This postage stamp sized bio-processor chip can analyze blood, urine, and stool samples. It's not as messy as it sounds.

Needless Needles: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a type of "serum electrophoresis," where ultrasonic waves are generated through the skin to bring blood serum to the skin to allow easier analysis. "This has incredible implications for needle-less drug delivery," Frank said. "It also moves us into that 'Spock era' of using a non-evasive method."

Find out the best ways to implement new technologies in the workplace