7 ms·
I love pagers. Sometimes I carry three for three different hospitals. There is no risk of malfunction due to automatic software updates when the software does
by medymed 7y ago
I love pagers. Sometimes I carry three for three different hospitals.
There is no risk of malfunction due to automatic software updates when the software does not update. There is no chatty distraction of text platforms. Functionality is not affected by changes to volume or mute status as it might be on a heavily used phone. The wavelengths used reportedly have better penetration deep into buildings with shielded areas like around MR machines. They are bulky, and it would be hard to forget that one is on call when they are strapped to the waistband/belt.
When the pager goes off, it doesn't bother other people because they either don't know what it is or know it's a medical issue and is acceptable.
The major problem is that I constantly 'hear' my pager going off when other devices beep in a roughly-similar fashion even when I'm not wearing it and my heart starts racing, so I have to change the ringtone frequently to de-Pavlov myself.
- macintux 7y agoI’m a big fan of them for technical on-call for those reasons, plus the better battery life. Much more reliable than cell phones.
- suls 7y agoIt’s the first time I’ve read about Pavlov. What are you referencing if I may ask?
- joatmon-snoo 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_Dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_Dog
- ekianjo 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Infernal 7y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov Pavlov famously rang a bell while feeding his dog, eventually demonstrating that the dog would salivate at the sound of the bell alone, showing an adaptive link between stimuli and subconscious response.
- urda 7y ago> The major problem is that I constantly 'hear' my pager going off when other devices beep in a roughly-similar fashion even when I'm not wearing it and my heart starts racing, so I have to change the ringtone frequently to de-Pavlov myself. Yup. I've got very, odd, sounds for all my "paging" needs. It's the only way to stay sane.
- AgalmicVentures 7y agoYou're absolutely right about the various advantages of pagers over cell phones. On the other hand, all of that medical information goes over the air in plain text. It is trivial to capture and decode POCSAG [1], requiring less than $100 of hardware: a Raspberry Pi 3 has enough horsepower to handle the 2 RTL-SDR's needed to capture both the 929MHz and 931MHz bands. Modern security simply demands that pagers go away (or at least be heavily modified). This is not a theoretical concern [2][3]. [1] https://github.com/pvachon/tsl-sdr https://github.com/pvachon/tsl-sdr [2] https://www.rtl-sdr.com/art-installation-eavesdrops-on-hospital-pagers-with-a-hackrf/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/art-installation-eavesdrops-on-hospi... [3] https://openprivacy.ca/blog/2019/09/09/open-privacy-discovers-vancouver-patient-medical-data-breach/ https://openprivacy.ca/blog/2019/09/09/open-privacy-discover...
- asdaddasdad 7y agoDoes the paged text typically contain information that can identify the patient?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- satanspastaroll 7y agoI'd imagine it to be trivial to also send malicious signals and jam the system.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoThat sounds like any radio frequency though. Alao a great way to get the FCC knocking on your door sooner or later.
- satanspastaroll 7y agoTrue you could create a trash beacon for any frequency, but as you said it'd be very "loud". Disrupting service with seemingly innocent messages would be much harder to detect though
- Abishek_Muthian 7y agoI can attest that notifications which doesn't force you to take immediate, real-time action has productivity and may be even mental health benefits. I have struck an old android wear watch to the front of the computer desk just to see the notifications from my smartphone. So when the notifications arrive, I can see it on the watch like a pager and it has cut my need to touch the smartphone for notifications which could potentially lead into a rabbit hole. Yes a smartwatch on hand can do these as well, but reaching to it will likely lead to smartwatch rabbit hole. I use the smartwatch on the desk as read only, no actions.
- vegardx 7y agoHow does pagers deal with dead spots? Since they seem to only be receivers it would be hard to guarantee delivery? I Googled a little and understood that it works a little different than cell towers, in that every tower transits the same message at the same time, a little similar to how FM-radio works. Interestingly enough it seems like 5G will operate in a similar fashion, albeit a little more modern, where at least the client can talk to multiple towers at the same time and send and receive from multiple towers as well.
- numpad0 7y agoI believe they don't? The most basic types of pagers are receive only device just like a FM radio is. The network is supposed to be sufficiently loud and clear and practical, and that's it.
- hannob 7y agoIt doesn't. I owned such a thing in an area where the reception was poor back in the 90s. It just meant that it wasn't very useful, because I usually didn't get the messages.
- femto 7y agoIn typical use the person being paged makes direct contact with the sender once the page has been received. It's better than guaranteed delivery, in that the direct contact from the recipient closes the loop "completely", and guarantees that the message has not only been delivered but also read, understood and acted upon. The attempt to page continues until the contact has been made. It's an old technology but it works. Large parts of the world are still installing new paging networks as their old ones reach end of life. Part of my day job is designing the equipment for such networks.
- dTal 7y agoEr, no - verbal confirmation of delivery, in the event it succeeds, is not better than guaranteed delivery; it is strictly worse. If the message gets dropped you have no way of knowing - you might be waiting forever.
- willyt 7y agoPlay this in the right place in a British or Irish seaside village and about 5 people will immediately jump up and run out the door! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EYfOxeBV7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EYfOxeBV7M
- raverbashing 7y agoBuilding reach is much less important when you have a higher level protocol on top and can check for message receipt (and can ack or people can call you as a last resort).
- softgrow 7y agoFor me the advantage of the pager, is that it is loud, much louder than a mobile phone and easy to hear outdoors in traffic. I have found though an iPad is equally loud, if not louder but is a lot bigger and less robust. For my use if someone can come up with a way of making a mobile phone alert to the same volume, I'd move to that as in any case I have to acknowledge the page on an app and the monthly service fee on the pager is four times what I pay for my mobile service.
- etatoby 7y agoYou might want to look for smartphones targeted to gamers, which usually have loud speakers, or buy a Bluetooth ringer amplifier and carry it with you.
- kawfey 7y agoIts too loud for me, but the vibration motor in mine is also incredibly, boneshakingly loud. It's impossible to ignore, which is great. My iPhone and apple watch are basically silent compared to it, especially when walking or doing anything laborious. I'm surprised your pager is so expensive. Mine is around $6/mo through my employer.