Entries in the Category "iPODWorld"
Proposal.
I came home from clinical last night to discover I had a message from my friend John:
JOHN: did you go to Holy Rosary on Sunday?
He had asked. I replied….
ME: no....
JOHN: ok
ME: why do you ask?
JOHN: well i was just getting to that. so in father phils homily, he began with a story
JOHN: so there was this guy who came into the rectory and was like father how come the church is all locked up
JOHN: and father was like well its winter and cold and it gets dark earlier so we close it up a little earlier
JOHN: and he was like oh, i thought it was always open
JOHN: then he said I actually wanted to propose to my girlfriend and father was like where is she
JOHN: and he said waiting outside
JOHN: so father said you all know the cupid that I am I opened up the church and turned all the lights on and went back to my office
JOHN: and as he left he waved with the a ok hand sign
John continued by asking me what I thought of a proposal in the church. He had his opinions, but wanted to know what a woman would think of the circumstance of her proposal.
Then, in today’s class, we were discussing the Motorola ROKR and its musical capabilities. It was mentioned that the ROKR stops the music as a person is receiving a call and then continues once the call has ended. Professor Yoo stated that he thought it would be neat if the music would continue playing while you answered the call. My immediate response was, “so when your parents call you, you can ignore them and continue listening to the music?” (just kidding mom and dad!) No. he meant that it would be great if they other person could hear the music as well. And presented us with a romantic situation… playing some sweet love song, and then proposing!
What?!? You want to propose to someone over your cell phone? As the class laughed at this and then made jokes about proposing through text messages, I immediately thought about my conversation with John the previous night. Both men were discussing the same situation, but in two very different ways. I’m a very traditional person; I don’t think I would ever appreciate a cell phone proposal. That’s a great story to tell your children (note the sarcasm). (Although I do see that a mobile telephone can be used to facilitate other romantic endeavors) But I feel like this is the direction our society is taking. Less personal interaction. More interaction through devices, cell phones, computers, webcams, etc. What happened to the traditional standards of proposing to people face to face? Will we punish our children via text to avoid any feelings of guilt?
One of the reasons I chose nursing as a profession was so that I could meet and interact with people. I love living on campus because it allows me to meet and interact with my peers. I love going to Croatia because it allows me to meet and interact with my relatives. Get it? Yes, I subscribe to using AIM, SMS, Gmail… all those good things to keep in touch with people as well… but that is sometimes because I have no other options. And yes, I have had many meaningful conversations with people through aim, sms, and gmail, but never do I feel that these medias should ever fully replace simple human to human interaction. What do you think? Where do you draw the line on how you use cell phones and e-mails?
The Beauty of SMS
First I’m going to include some quotations from Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold that I find interesting:
“Even before the launch of i-mode, Finnish adolescent courtship rituals and the social norms of Finnish business managers had been transformed by the use of short messages” (12)
“Through SMS teens hate, gossip, mediate, and express longing, even when the writer lacks the courage for a call or in situations where other communication channels are inappropriate. The text message is the backdoor of communication… Text messaging is a way to share relationships” (16)
“Stockholm, in May 2001, was buzzing with mobile culture. My hotel hosted weekend private parties, open only to those who could display the right SMS message at the door. One of the party organizers told me that this floating network of hundreds started gathering at a different locale each week after each of four founders sent SMS invitations to everyone in their address books.” (20)
My first experience with text messing occurred when I was in Croatia for a summer (summer of 2000 I think). I was with a friend who seemed to be burning up the keys on her mobile every time the thing beeped, or about every five minutes. I was amazed by this. Given she still received phone calls, the amount of short messages that arrived to her mobile amazed me. Immediately I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Sms-ing has become such a major part of so many cultures. I have friends in Croatia whose parents have also learned how to text message!!! I don’t know many parents in the US that do this. Also, there are many songs (none that I have heard from American artists, but Italian, Spanish, and Croatian) that have incorporated something about short-messages into their songs… even as simple as the beep made when a mobile receives a text message. While in Croatia, I began borrowing her phone to text friends I was planning on visiting while in Croatia. This was fun!
As soon as I came back to the states, I began to use text messaging. My options of who I could text were limited, since not many people had embraced the technology. These days, however, I find myself sending text messages daily. I have a few people I text regularly which consists of my family and my closet friends. As I have mentioned in class several times, I often find myself sms-ing my international friends. Usually when I send a message, it is covered in my monthly allowance of text messages. I have also found websites that allow me to send messages directly to a friend’s cell phone overseas. I frequently send text messages to wish someone a happy birthday, let them know that something exciting has happened with me, or to simply say hello. This is much more convenient than calling my friends because doing that with my cell phone is ridiculously expensive (although prices are drastically dropping) and when I am usually at home where our international phone plan is amazing, it is usually too late for me to call anyone in Europe).
Then I got to thinking… why text messages are amazing…
- They can be used during class and are less disruptive. They don’t require you to speak and if you are in a large lecture hall, your teacher may never know you are sending someone a message.
- Allow people to avoid actually talking to someone. When sending a text you ask what you need and that’s it. No obligation to say more… most messages are only 160 characters long, so you are limited to what you can say and there is no need to waste it on unnecessary babble.
- Allows access to a greater number of people. Although I have never tried it, my phone enables me to send the same text message to multiple people in my address book
- Phone numbers can be easily sent through a sms. This way it is easier to copy right into my phonebook.
Needless to say, my thumb is very proficient at texting.
Cancer.
Barabasi states in Linked, “Cancer is the most researched human illness ever” (191). Ever. Although I do read up on cancer frequently, I guess this fact never hit me. I believe it speaks volumes about an illness…
Since I am a nursing student and cancer interests me, I had to seize this opportunity to share some of my knowledge about a current cancer treatment.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s there was this drug called Thalidomide. Thalidomide was used mainly as a sleeping pill and an antiemetic to combat morning sickness in pregnant women. The drug was distributed in many countries, mainly Germany (where it was originally produced) and Great Britain. To my knowledge it was not dispersed in the United States at that time. In the early 60’s it was discovered that thalidomide had some teratogenic effects in the infants whose mothers had used it. (Teratogenic is the medical term used to say that something will cause congenital malformations and result in serious abnormalities at birth, another example of something that can be described as teratogenic is alcohol.) The resulting birth defects included short or absent long bones and missing limbs. Obviously these are devastating side effects.
Only two-thirds of the children that were born with deformities due to the use of thalidomide survived their first year of life. Once it was discovered what was causing all of these deformities, Thalidomide was quickly taken off the market. (It was later found that this drug had never been tested on pregnant animals, so its tragic adverse reaction was not discovered until after it had been on the market for quite some time. When it was finally tested on pregnant animals, it was found to cause deformities on the offspring.)
How this relates to cancer…
The reason thalidomide caused such devastating results was that it inhibited angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels are formed. Consequently, if a woman took thalidomide while pregnant, the drug disrupted fetal development (and thus babies were born without limbs). Moreover, it was discovered that this mechanism of the drug has positive effects on those patients with cancer. Prevention of angiogenesis does not allow a tumor to grow (no blood vessels=no nutrients) and thus is pertinent in the prevention of tumors transforming from a dormant state to a malignant one.
Consequently, the drug is now used for multiple myeloma. It has even become a first line drug. Researchers in Australia conducted a trial of the drug on a group of cancer patients. What they discovered was that the thalidomide doubled the number of T-cells in the patients. (T-cells are a type of white blood cell that are involved in every immune system reaction in the body) Consequently, the patients were able to fight off the illness better than without the use of the drug.
What I learned from working at the hospital:
This past Wednesday I was at work (I work on the hematology/oncology floor @ UH). It just so happened that a patient on the floor was receiving Thalidomide. The nurse that was gathering the drugs for the patient had a nursing student working with him and they were going over all of the drugs their patient was receiving. I joined in on their conversation as they were discussing Thalidomide and found out some interesting facts about the drug (including some of what is listed above). I also found out that this drug is very regulated. Most hospitals have drugs drawers designated to each patient. Pharmacy comes and fills these drawers with the drugs prescribed to each patient for a particular day. If more drugs are ever needed, a nurse can always call and ask pharmacy to bring them to the floor. Every hospital floor also has a narcotics drawer. To access this drawer keys are needed and every drug removed must be signed out and the remaining drugs must be counted so that there are no discrepancies in the remaining total. If part of a narcotic drug is ever going to be wasted (for example if only half of a tablet is needed), another nurse must sign-off that he or she witnessed the wasting. At the end of every shift, the narcotics are counted and if there is an error, it must be corrected before any of the nurses can leave.
Thalidomide however cannot be obtained through the narcotic drawer nor can pharmacy stock it in the patient’s designated drawer. The hospital pharmacy never carries Thalidomide. Calling pharmacy and asking them to bring the drug to you will more than likely cause them to laugh at your request. The only way Thalidomide can be acquired is by having a company that produces it ship it to you. Thus, if a patient is at the hospital, it must be sent there and it remains locked until it is ready for use. Measures are taken to insure that the women using these drugs are not pregnant. These steps have been taken because of the devastating effects it can have on.
This situation is not unique. There are many other drugs that are not solely used for the purpose they were made. I find these “investigational uses” or “off-label uses” very interesting.
Links
I found the section in Linked about six degrees of separation very interesting.
I love meeting people, learning about them, what is important to them, what makes them happy, etc., In many of my encounters of meeting some people, I have discovered that they are very good friends with someone my very good friends, yet we met through different means. Seeing how everyone is connected to everyone else fascinates me. Also, I cannot count how many times throughout my life my parents have told me, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. This statement has certainly proved true. Many times my links have helped me attain things I had been striving for but was having trouble achieving without some outside help.
Instead of attempting to link myself with the rest of the world through six degrees, I will only list a few of the links that I enjoyed having and utilizing/think are pretty neat:
-Croatia. Last time I vacationed in Croatia, I made it to 6 different cities. In each of those cities, my brothers or I had a link. These links enabled us to have homes to stay in and not hotels.
-Austin, TX. I went to Austin for fall break. There are a couple of former Case students there that I know. However, my brother Mark is a part of an organization called the Croatian-American Association (CAA) and through this he met a Croatian that resides in Austin that I was able to meet when I was down there. Thus, I have one more link in Austin.
-My brother was a translator for one of the presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through this he has fostered relationships with many politicians and has also had the opportunity to act as a translator for the president of B&H to former President Clinton.
-Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. I have met countless people that are graduates of this school. I was working @ UH not too long ago, when a patient’s wife told me that she used to be an instructor at the school and shared with me some of her insight on nursing.
-My brother Tom works for a man who is involved in the Porsche club of Cleveland. Consequently, my brother is involved in the German auto show every year and is sometimes “required” to drive a Porsche or two to the show… I have made it to the show in the past and that cars that show up are absolutely stunning.
-Dr. Ferry. My last SAGES professor appeared to have millions of links and we met several of them throughout our course. He was once the CEO of University Hospitals, linking him to pretty much everyone there (and one amazing oncologist named Dr. Overmoyer that I had the pleasure of interviewing). (if I remember correctly) He ran a health clinic on an Indian reservation and had Dr. Atkins (I think… if not him I think it was Dr. Heimlich of the Heimlich maneuver) contact him about testing some practices on the reservation.
I’m sure I have many more cool links… but this is all I will list for now.
Multimedia and the Internet - Technology convergence
In The Internet Galaxy, Castells flirts with the idea of technology converging. Examples he gives of what this might consist of in the future include:
- A TV being used as a display and being connected to the internet by a computer and a phone line
- Using TV channels when they are off air to transmit information to storage devices that can then be accessed by computers
Examples of this convergence that I have been exposed to include the following:
Case currently allows students to watch television on the personal computers. I myself have not tried this (although I certainly intend to as soon as finals are over with); but my roommate has tried it a few times and seems to enjoy this technology. She says the quality is pretty good and enjoys being able to watch TV on her computer since we do not have a television in our room. I think the technology is pretty neat and exceptionally convenient for poor college students. Almost everyone will purchase themselves a computer, but not everyone will be willing to shell out the cash necessary for a television. With this technology, we are not required to.
I love listening to music. I have music playing all the time in my room, whether I am doing work, trying to get to sleep, cleaning, anything. I love is that there are radio stations in Croatia that broadcast their stations over the internet. This is wonderful for two reasons. First, I do not have a stereo or even an alarm clock (I use my cell phone) that lets me listen to the radio. Secondly, even if I did have such a stereo, I would still not be able to listen to stations that were being broadcast in Croatia. Thus with my laptop and an internet connection, I am able to listen to the same radio program as people on a different continent.
The Takeover of the Internet
“The internet is a communication medium (as the pubs were), and it is the material infrastructure of a given organizational form: the network (as the factory was).” (Castells 139)
Although there are many excellent points brought up in the “Computer Networks and Civil Society” section of Castells’ book The Internet Galaxy (including the fact that the internet allows one to think locally and act globally as opposed to the quotation, think globally act locally, of many years ago), I am going to focus on the above statement.
Yes, the internet is a marvelous thing. It allows me access to all of my close friends, no matter where they are in the world, through e-mail. I am capable of researching almost anything and having endless amounts of sources at my disposal. I can monitor the events of the world as frequently as I would like with the news websites available. I can check local movie listings, look for suggestions on the next novel to read, pretty much anything I want to do, I can do over the internet. Except experience real human contact.
Anyone that knows me well knows that I LOVE hugs. Hugs are an important part of my every day life. Last year, I gave all of my roommates hugs before I went to sleep. They became so accustomed to this, that if I happened to miss a night or if they were going to bed before me, they would come and give me a hug.
The internet cannot hug you. In fact, I feel that sometimes our society is desensitized by conversing so much via e-mail, messaging systems etc. Yes, it is easier sometimes to write down your thoughts rather than having to say them… but a computer cannot properly convey a person’s emotions and facial expression ( is really insufficient). It does not replace real live human interaction and sometimes I fear that this will quickly be fully replaced by the internet. Pubs, coffeehouses, parks, etc. will no longer be necessary for people to hold conversations. All that will be necessary is a laptop and an internet connection. Will two friends find themselves enjoying the sleekness of their computers instead of the sunrise of a summer’s day? I hope not.
I think I will stop rambling now, but I hope you got my point. I’m weary of the internet replacing too much human interaction.
Ubiquitous Computing...
Throughout the semester we have frequently discussed ubiquitous computing and what it really means. - I have been thinking about writing a blog about this for quite some time -Scenarios have been presented in which wherever a person goes, from the office to right outside the office building to the inside of a car, ubiquitous computing would allow that person to continue working on whatever he or she was working on inside of his or her own office and the information would be transmitted to whatever devices were available.
Although this seems pretty cool, what is the purpose? Can’t a person just enjoy a car ride without having to do work every time he was on the road? I understand that sometimes deadlines must be met in corporate America, but that does not require one to do work during every minute a he isn’t sleeping. So a businessman can communicate with his office, as his ride transports him to the airport, using the screen that is implanted in the car. Does that mean he will use the television in his bedroom at home to discuss business decisions? When does a person cut off from work and have a life… a life that has nothing to do with a person’s day job?
The reason I bring this up…
My best friend graduated from Case in May. She is a Computer Engineer. (meaning I LOVE having her around whenever my computer breaks or flashes the blue screen of death) She is currently employed at IBM. Her job seems decent for several reasons: it pays well, she enjoys the team she works on, she can come and go as she pleases as long as her work is completed in a timely fashion, and they have foosball tables all over the place!
I find many of these aspects of her job wonderful. As a nurse I will have definite hours, 7am-3pm, 3 pm- 11pm, and 11pm-7am. Hopefully, I will be able to work the shift that best suites my personal life and sleep pattern. My friend on the other hand, does not have to worry about this. She can come to work at a different hour every day. This is a smart move by IBM because people are creative at different points in the day. Those that are best in the morning can come in and do their work earlier in the day and so on. The foosball tables… I understand these tables are a good addition to the office for a couple of reasons. She can take a break from work whenever she needs to and simply have fun. After staring at the computer screen all day, one needs to do something active, to be social, etc. Also, the game fosters a relationship with the team with which you are working on your project… this obviously has many benefits that I don’t need to get into here…
What I don’t like about her job….
IBM provides each of their employees with laptops (pretty fancy ones I might add!) These laptops can be taken with the employees wherever they may go… home, airport, vacation, etc. One many occasions I have found my friend working on her projects when she really should not be.
Examples:
She flew home to see her family. At one point, she had some down time so she brought out her laptop and started coding. EEK! Mind you… she lives in a completely different time zone than her family and does not see them very often… Why bring out the laptop? She was on vacation… why not enjoy it to the fullest?
It’s Sunday. She usually enjoys watching a football game or two and then some of the Sunday night television line-up. Sometimes, when she has a lot of work to do, she opens up her document (or whatever it is) and starts working. On a Sunday. She is going to spend the next five days at work… and wants a head start… last time I thought… Sunday was the day of rest…
These are only a couple of the many times I noticed her doing work when she could have found other things to occupy her time. I understand that sometimes she might simply be inspired to do work when she is not physically in her office, but where do you draw the line? With my future career as a nurse, I have a set shift, yes there may be times that I will be required to work overtime, but that will not happen all of the time. This leads me to the questions I have been tossing in my head…
Do we really need ubiquitous computing? Must we have access to the information on our laptops, palm pilots, whatever the item may be, all of the time? How will this change our lifestyles? I find that our society as a whole has already lost some of the social aspects that are vital for survival… how much worse can it get? I read Fahrenheit 451 in grade school and although I do not remember much of the book, I do have dreary images in my head of robots completing all of the tasks that humans once did and people walking around like zombies and participating in zero conversations that were meaningful with other human beings… somehow I picture ubiquitous computing leading to the same end result… this is certainly not something I want to witness.
Going Native. “A lapse in discipline and a descent into chaos”?
In the concluding chapter of Digital Ground, McCullough writes, “You might wish for a simpler life. Filling the world with sensors, effectors, and microchips probably sounds like just the opposite of this. Sites that respond to you may also unnerve you. Objects that interact may never seem as natural as objects that you just operate, like a kitchen sink.”
The above statement does unnerve me. I don’t always enjoy when too many things are completed for me and require less effort on my part. For example, when I go into the garage at my house, there is a motion-sensor light that turns on every time I open the door. That’s fine. This doesn’t seem to bother me. However (and yes, I know it is a safety feature) I hate when I try to sprint under the garage door after having hit the button to close it and the garage door senses my action and reverses its motion. I don’t appreciate the door reacting to me then. I want it to close; I know I have only a couple of seconds to make it under the door and plan on making it with time to spare. I wish the door would just close!
So perhaps what I am saying is that I enjoy when the environment responds to me in the way that I want it to. I don’t like it when objects interact with me in a manner that I am not seeking, such as the garage door. I dunno. I am still tossing these thoughts around in my head.
“There is no point in opposing technology per se, as if, say, air conditioners, aspirin, and address servers were all part of one big wrong turn in human history.”
I think it is unfair to say that all of these technologies are part of a “wrong turn”, but outcomes associated with them are not as positive as the technology intended to be. For example, air conditioners use an exceptional amount of electricity and the gas used to cool the air contains CFCs which destroy the ozone layer. Aspirin on the other hand, when taken too much, can cause gastric ulcers. Thus although technology is meant to be beneficial and enhance our lives, it can produce negative effects. These effects must be calculated into the overall benefit of the technologies.
My Laptops
Random sharing...
When the time came for me to depart for college, it was also the time to purchase a laptop to take along for the ride. Since I was not the one paying for it, I did not give much input into what I wanted. I had never owned a computer before, so I figured I should be satisfied with whatever my father purchased for me.
The laptop I received was fabulous. It did everything I wanted; then again, I wasn’t asking it to do very much… lord knows I’m not computer savvy. My computer ran perfectly for the longest time. Then all of a sudden it happened. I remember being in my dorm in Tyler freshman year. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I got back… my computer was off. It had spontaneously combusted (not really)… but it had turned itself off. The problem didn’t get better. I found myself receiving virus warnings and every time I did a virus scan, it said it could not remove the virus from my computer. The spontaneous combusting continued. I would be listening to music, on Aim, and writing a paper… and my computer would shut off. Just like that. And then cycle back on and off until I finally shut it off, gave it a couple of minutes, and then tried to turn it back on. Unplugging it from the wall would also elicit the combustion. Yes. I did have people look at it. And they suggested I reformat. Yes. I should have done this immediately. But I didn’t. I spent all of sophomore year attempting to save my files to a disc so that reformatting would not result in a disaster.
At times my computer frustrated me more than I could handle. It would shut off, I would give it a couple of minutes and then try to reboot. It wouldn’t work. I would wait a couple more minutes and try again. Nothing. It was most annoying when I was IM-ing people or writing long e-mails. Devastation. Usually Word Documents would be saved, so no papers were tragically lost during the combustion.
Needless to say, I never made it to reformatting my computer. One day, during the summer, as I was watching an episode of my favorite television show … my computer shut off… and wouldn’t restart after my ten attempts. I gave up. Went to sleep. Tried again the next morning. Still nothing. This was serious. My computer was angry with me. It had never not turned on the morning after.
After consulting two of my Comp E friends (have I mentioned that I love having friends such as these?), they both decided that the issue was with my mother board. Poor mother board. Obviously it was too costly to replace the mother board… so it was time for a new laptop! EXCITING! Of course I know very little about what to look for in a computer… so once again, I consulted my comp e’s. I must say, I have had this new computer since the end of July and I absolutely adore it. Initially I did have a fear of it spontaneously combusting… I would anticipate it shutting off on me at any minute. I would hold my breath… waiting to see. Then I would exhale in relief, knowing that it wouldn’t. such joy.
The Future...
http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927
I got the link above sent to me in an e-mail from my cousin who works at SBC.
I think something such as the scenario demonstrated in the link is in our future (how soon in the future is difficult to determine). Some aspects the scenario presented are convenient… such as having your address listed as soon you are connected … making each order of pizza easier by not having to repeat your address with every phone call and ensuring that the address is correct.
However, I'm sure if jobs like this are outsourced (which soon enough they probably would be)... the operators on the other end of the telephone may have great difficulties in understanding our orders... Furthermore, as has been my experience with talking to people working halfway across the globe, they are persistent in areas that have nothing to do with why I am calling them. I once spoke to a computer tech inquiring as to what the different causes of my computer not turning on could be. I made my situation clear: I turned my computer on, it was on for about 5 seconds, and then it shut off. The operator did not seem to understand this concept. He insisted I access the control panel and adjust different functions. After each suggestion, I kindly reminded him that I COULD NOT open the control panel because Windows was not loading... My computer shut off before that happened. Having competent people taking orders is a necessity when it comes to ordering pizzas if the companies intend to keep their customers.
What if when ordering a pizza simply because we are calling from work (such as the gentleman in the skit) the operator assumes that we want our pizza to arrive at work... or even if we remind them to send it home they still send it to work? Operators might be more persistent in delivering to us wherever we are (perhaps as a tactic to encourage us to return to their store)... or might have problems understanding where we want our pizza delivered if it is different from the address associated with our calling number.
Most importantly, what concern is it of any pizza place to know any of these things:
-what our medical ailments are (although knowing our allergies can ensure that we do not eat any foods we are allergic to)-- and then charging extra if we order things that only exacerbate our current medical problems... what happens to our freedom of choosing what we eat?
-our psychiatric issues? Does Pizza Hut really have to know that you only order an extra large meat lovers pizza every time you come back from an appointment with your psychiatrist?
-the size of our waist by viewing the last clothing purchases we made?
-where we are going on vacation, how much we spent on the tickets?
-our credit history?
Having such information shared with those that take our pizza orders gives them an advantage over us, the consumers… they know practically everything there is to know about us, while we only know what their voice sounds like and what pizza company they work for. This information is certainly more than they need to know about anyone simply calling to order a pizza. We have no intention of fostering relationships with them… we just want them to take our order.
If scenarios such as these were currently possible, I think people would prefer computerized orders rather than having to deal with a human that had all of one's personal information listed on the screen in front of him. Although the advancements that have been made by computing are beneficial… I do not view this as being one of them.
Supreme Medicine
At clinical last week, after receiving report on each of my three patients, introducing myself to them and then quickly assessing each one, I proceeded to the computer to look up their most recent lab results and view the history of their hospital stays. After I entered the name of my third patient, last name, first name, and tapped Enter, a red screen slammed onto the monitor. It read, “CONFIDENTIAL! The patient whose information you are viewing is confidential! A record will be kept stating that you viewed this patient’s information. Would you like to proceed?” At first, I was slightly startled. Never before have I run into such a warning. I had an impeding sense of having performed a misdemeanor when this screen flashed before me. Was there top-secret information about this patient that I was not to view? Why was he granted the privilege of receiving a list of who accessed his files? (as it turned out, my patient had a relative who worked in the hospital. It was the hospitals measure to keep the relative from viewing the patient’s records and also the employee’s way of making sure no one checked up on her family’s health information)…
Moving on…
I have become accustomed to the appearance of Windows, its welcoming blue screen asking me to log in (not to be confused with the blue screen of death), its beckoning green start button, which once I click on it displays the names of the programs on my machine in the font I have selected…almost everything about Windows is welcoming and comforting. This is not the case with the computers I have unwillingly met at St. Vincent’s Hospital. These computers are old, I mean ancient! I remember the Atari I had growing up… these computers seem to be generations older than that machine. My first day on the cardiac floor at the hospital earlier this semester, I recall a nurse making a reference to how the computers were dug up from a basement after not seeing the light of day for decades. I’m positive this is a true statement.
How are healthcare professionals expected to utilize computers to the best of their ability if the computers are not up to standards? Doctors strive to give their patients first-class service, so why shouldn’t they in turn be given first class computers? These computers offer no comforting screens, no delicate colors. The background is an oppressive black with a faded white font. Some screens have outlines in red or a stale yellow. Staring at the screens for too long causes my eyes tire. If this is the future of ubiquitous computing, I’d rather keep paper charting around.
University Hospitals of Cleveland spent $14,000,000 updating their medication records and computerizing them all (or so I was told it cost this much). This is the cost for one hospital to update its medication administration system. The Cleveland Clinic has avoided the process because of the enormous expense. Although UH does possess slightly better software than the one dug up from the basement at St. Vincent’s, there are still many things thwarting solely using computerized records in the hospital… great leaps will have to be made before it can happen.
Yes, it would be amazing for me to go into the Emergency department, any ED, and have all of my medical records “on file” in the computer system. If my medications, allergy and past medical history were all listed for quick access by any physician whose care I was seeking I’m sure my visit would be less time consuming for the both of us… But for the medical records of over 200 million people to be typed into a computer… I don’t even think it is feasible to being thinking about that… the cost, the time, the mistakes…
One very positive I have heard about the computer system at St. Vincent’s is that the doctor’s are able to access the information from anywhere in the institution as well as another hospital that uses the same computing system. This allows the doctor to monitor a patient and “write” orders for a patient without having to go and check on the patient each time. For example, if the patient has been put on a new oral anti-diabetic, the doctor can monitor the patient’s glucose levels while he is doing rounds at the other hospital. If he thinks the dose should be increased or a new medication should be given, he can put that order in without having to physically meet with the patient and or finding the bedside chart.
In his chapter about e-healthcare from Leonardo’s Laptop, Ben Shneiderman pleaded with healthcare and computer professionals to “permit their imaginations to go free for a moment, and come along with this fantasy” of having computerized patient records accessible anywhere at anytime (176). This most certainly is a fantasy and will remain a fantasy for quiet some time... perhaps Shneiderman should propose more manageable and realistic goals for the healthcare industry and its use of computing.
Henry Louis Gates
I think one of the best aspects of this university is that it awards us with access to many of the world’s outstanding people. These encounters always instill in me a desire for greatness, an accomplishment of something wonderful, any piece of a dream.
This was certainly the case when Henry Louis Gates came to speak at Severance Hall. His detailed chronicle of the Encyclopedia Africana surpassed my expectations of the event. I loved hearing all of the historical pieces from the time of W.E.B. DuBois to Gates’ struggle to have the text published. All of the achievements Gates listed for himself made me question how one person could squeeze so much into one lifetime. Gates was certainly awarded with amazing oration skills. He kept me interested in his story through the very end. Finally, it is nice to see an encyclopedia that isn’t so drab. This is exactly the type of encyclopedia I would like to reference!
The Imposing iPod
Passing my peers on the way to and from class, I can’t help but notice one thing. We are from different cities, schools, and races. Some of our parents are doctors while others run the family restaurant. We have different goals in life; some want to discover the cure for cancer while others just want to make it out of here without an insurmountable debt. But almost everyone has one thing in common. When it comes to Mp3 players, most choose iPod. It is interesting when you think about it. Is there any other item that we can say is so widespread on our campus? We don’t all purchase the same cars, enroll in the exact same classes, or even use the same writing utensils. Yet, when it comes to portable music players, a quick glance around the quad will certainly locate several pairs of those white ear buds dangling from students’ ears.
What is it about the iPod that makes it the be-all and end-all of Mp3 players? Is it simply a plague that has infested our campus causing every student to purchase one? Perhaps Apple has planted students around campus that make those without an iPod envious causing them to order one the next time they are in front of their computer. Perhaps the infestation of the iPod is part of Hundert’s plan to make Case the most powerful learning environment in the universe. Perhaps the iPod is just that good.
My brother, Mark, is a grad student at American University. When I spoke to him earlier this week, he inquired about which Mp3 device I thought he should purchase. Well, duh! “Get an iPod,” I quickly told him. Almost as if he did not hear what I said, he answered with, “yea, I don’t really want an iPod. I don’t think the price is worth it. I was thinking about getting a Creative one.” Huh. I was confused. Was he really thinking about purchasing something besides the mighty iPod? There was one person I knew my freshman year that possessed something other than an iPod. She had a Sony mini-disc player. By sophomore year she purchased herself a pink mini. Mark’s suggestion of purchasing something other than an iPod was truly a foreign idea. When my peers discuss purchasing an Mp3 player, the conversation usually includes a discussion of the different iPods, not of different brands of Mp3 players.
I’ve glanced at different Mp3 players from bestbuy.com, but nothing excites me as much as an iPod. Perhaps it is the sleek lines of the device, or its angelic white color. Perhaps it is because I use iTunes more than any other music player on my computer and adore it. Perhaps Apple has done an incredible job marketing of the line and I cannot help but feel that owning the device will improve my life in ways I never thought possible. Or perhaps it’s because everyone else has one and I must keep up with the Joneses!
On another note… my tech savvy friend gave me this link after I told her about this class and what we have been discussing… http://gprime.net/video.php/iPodflea
What do you think? Will the flea be as successful as the other iPods?
Finally!
After much frustration... I have finally figured this out (I think)! Perhaps I should work on sharpening my computer skills.