4 ms·

Interesting article, but 2 things stood out: 1. "Google Glass immediately recognizes the room and then the ED Dashboard sends information about the patient in

by kitd 13y ago

Interesting article, but 2 things stood out: 1. "Google Glass immediately recognizes the room and then the ED Dashboard sends information about the patient in that room to the glasses" This sounds like a redundant level of indirection. Why not just have a patient-unique QR code on the bed? 2. Very OT, but the use of "emergently" made me bristle. "Emergent" has a very well-established meaning that is not "very urgent". Sorry, end of rant.

keithflower 13y ago
1. Or QR on the patient's wrist identifier. 2) Agreed OT, but "emergent" to roughly mean "urgent" is pretty established in medicine. Here's a more thorough discussion: http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2013/01/23/emergency-emergent-urgent/ http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2013/01/23/emergency-emerge...
- diydsp 13y ago
  An apparently deep discussion, but the author cherry picks definitions to match his argument. For example, he states two definitions for Merriam-webster, but they are only definitions 1a and 1b. There are 4 more. Stedman's dictionary requires an account, so I can not verify at this time.
  - keithflower 13y ago
    Well, here's Stedman (a standard medical dictionary) on 'emergent' from...a hundred years ago: emergent 1. Arising suddenly and unexpectedly and calling for quick judgment and prompt action. http://books.google.com/books?id=OG0XAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA290&dq=stedman%27s+dictionary+emergent&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cXMgU9bjBaauyAHv94DACw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=stedman's%20dictionary%20emergent&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=OG0XAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA290&dq=st...
- shadesandcolour 13y ago
  QR code on the wall is probably better in this case because it's easier to spot from a head mounted display. The barcodes on wristbands are used mainly for patient ID when administering medications, where the user is close to the patient. Being able to walk into a room and look at the same place each time has the advantage here.
  - keithflower 13y ago
    Maybe. But the ERs I work in rarely have one patient rooms, and the patients have a tendency to wander.
bostonpete 13y ago
A patient unique QR code would need to be kept with the patient at all times in an easily visible place. Maybe a good solution for the long term but would require a lot more changes/training to ensure the codes stayed with the patient. On the flip side most hospitals already have a pretty reliable system for tracking which patients are assigned to which room so this approach can leverage the existing infrastructure and process.
skue 13y ago
1. A QR code on the bed would still be a layer of indirection and if it's patient specific, something else to print and get lost. Patients are already given bracelets with bar codes. But there are many reasons why they may not have used bracelets with their system: It may have felt too intrusive a way to greet patients. The backend system already maps patients to rooms and providers are used to thinking this way. Providers are also accustomed to confirming ID verbally with patient and always using the bracelet to be absolutely certain when dispensing meds or starting a procedure. Finally, in an emergent situation the bed can be surrounded by providers, and asking everyone to step back to scan a bracelet just to look something up in Glass would not be okay. 2. If this use of "emergent" makes you bristle, then stay away from hospitals because all healthcare providers and especially ED providers use the term this way. Every specialized domain has its own lingo and I doubt they care to change over a layman's concerns. Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if a non-technical English major tried to correct our use of all the technical lingo we use. (But this is seriously OT. So if someone is interested in exploring this, it might make an interesting separate blog/HN post.) 3. FYI, Halamka is a rockstar techie doc who built his hospital's EMR, serves as CIO, helps draft federal standards, sits on multiple boards, still sees patients, and runs an organic farm on the side. Edit: Added more info and dialed down the frustration that on second reading might have sounded too much like snark.
- kitd 13y ago
  >1. A QR code on the bed would still be a layer of indirection and if it's patient specific, something else to print and get lost. Patients are already given bracelets with bar codes. But there are many reasons why they may not have used bracelets with their system: It may have felt too intrusive a way to greet patients. The backend system already maps patients to rooms and providers are used to thinking this way. Providers are also accustomed to confirming ID verbally with patient and always using the bracelet to be absolutely certain when dispensing meds or starting a procedure. Finally, in an emergent situation the bed can be surrounded by providers, and asking everyone to step back to scan a bracelet just to look something up in Glass would not be okay. Yes, when I thought about it a bit more, I could see advantages to having this indirection. An d if that is how the "system" is already set up, then all the better. I can imagine though that there may be cases of room transfers without a system update which may cause problems at times, but they will do anyway, not just for supporting this technology.
diydsp 13y ago
> emergently. As a self-styled knitpicker and guardian of language, I had to look it up. The references I found [1] [2] indicated emergent can mean calling for immediate action or urgent, however, it's only in the weakest use of the word. And I find the adverb form of the word another step weaker. I believe the definition you're highlighting is related to the dictionary definitions referring to "appearing casually or unexpectedly," such as emergent phenomena, which are, arguably slow. These near opposite meanings of the word are unfortunate, b/c people don't really know what sentences using the word are supposed to mean: Is an emergent page one that appeared gradually over time or one that must be attended to immediately? I find the author's repeated use of the word clumsy and non-descriptive. Exactly the kind of trendy abuse of a word to signal self-entitled and undeserved superiority. To get paged emergently doesn't describe the process of getting paged for an urgent issue, since the action of paging is different from the issue (how was the page button pressed?). To "emergently reverse" blood thinners could just as easily have been stated as "quickly, immediately, or urgently." Therefore, I would follow your suggestion and drop use of the word as a high-falootin' synonym of "urgently." [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emergent http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emergent [2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emergent http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emergent
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- scoot 13y ago
  'These near opposite meanings of the word are unfortunate, b/c people don't really know what sentences using the word are supposed to mean' By some strange coincidence, there is a discussion on such antonymous words under the current front-page article on mispronunciation of words: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7384406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7384406
- blhack 13y ago
  Guardian of language? That's a bit of a silly position to take, isn't it? I would say that almost everyone who studies language agress that "guarding" language is bad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription
Fomite 13y ago
> This sounds like a redundant level of indirection. Why not just have a patient-unique QR code on the bed? This necessitates entering the patient's room. A QR code on the door as well allows for accessing information without disturbing their sleep, for example.

by kitd 13y ago

keithflower 13y ago

1. Or QR on the patient's wrist identifier. 2) Agreed OT, but "emergent" to roughly mean "urgent" is pretty established in medicine. Here's a more thorough discussion: http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2013/01/23/emergency-emergent-urgent/ http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2013/01/23/emergency-emerge...

diydsp 13y ago
An apparently deep discussion, but the author cherry picks definitions to match his argument. For example, he states two definitions for Merriam-webster, but they are only definitions 1a and 1b. There are 4 more. Stedman's dictionary requires an account, so I can not verify at this time.
- keithflower 13y ago
  Well, here's Stedman (a standard medical dictionary) on 'emergent' from...a hundred years ago: emergent 1. Arising suddenly and unexpectedly and calling for quick judgment and prompt action. http://books.google.com/books?id=OG0XAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA290&dq=stedman%27s+dictionary+emergent&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cXMgU9bjBaauyAHv94DACw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=stedman's%20dictionary%20emergent&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=OG0XAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA290&dq=st...
shadesandcolour 13y ago
QR code on the wall is probably better in this case because it's easier to spot from a head mounted display. The barcodes on wristbands are used mainly for patient ID when administering medications, where the user is close to the patient. Being able to walk into a room and look at the same place each time has the advantage here.
- keithflower 13y ago
  Maybe. But the ERs I work in rarely have one patient rooms, and the patients have a tendency to wander.

bostonpete 13y ago

A patient unique QR code would need to be kept with the patient at all times in an easily visible place. Maybe a good solution for the long term but would require a lot more changes/training to ensure the codes stayed with the patient. On the flip side most hospitals already have a pretty reliable system for tracking which patients are assigned to which room so this approach can leverage the existing infrastructure and process.

skue 13y ago

1. A QR code on the bed would still be a layer of indirection and if it's patient specific, something else to print and get lost. Patients are already given bracelets with bar codes. But there are many reasons why they may not have used bracelets with their system: It may have felt too intrusive a way to greet patients. The backend system already maps patients to rooms and providers are used to thinking this way. Providers are also accustomed to confirming ID verbally with patient and always using the bracelet to be absolutely certain when dispensing meds or starting a procedure. Finally, in an emergent situation the bed can be surrounded by providers, and asking everyone to step back to scan a bracelet just to look something up in Glass would not be okay. 2. If this use of "emergent" makes you bristle, then stay away from hospitals because all healthcare providers and especially ED providers use the term this way. Every specialized domain has its own lingo and I doubt they care to change over a layman's concerns. Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if a non-technical English major tried to correct our use of all the technical lingo we use. (But this is seriously OT. So if someone is interested in exploring this, it might make an interesting separate blog/HN post.) 3. FYI, Halamka is a rockstar techie doc who built his hospital's EMR, serves as CIO, helps draft federal standards, sits on multiple boards, still sees patients, and runs an organic farm on the side. Edit: Added more info and dialed down the frustration that on second reading might have sounded too much like snark.

kitd 13y ago
>1. A QR code on the bed would still be a layer of indirection and if it's patient specific, something else to print and get lost. Patients are already given bracelets with bar codes. But there are many reasons why they may not have used bracelets with their system: It may have felt too intrusive a way to greet patients. The backend system already maps patients to rooms and providers are used to thinking this way. Providers are also accustomed to confirming ID verbally with patient and always using the bracelet to be absolutely certain when dispensing meds or starting a procedure. Finally, in an emergent situation the bed can be surrounded by providers, and asking everyone to step back to scan a bracelet just to look something up in Glass would not be okay. Yes, when I thought about it a bit more, I could see advantages to having this indirection. An d if that is how the "system" is already set up, then all the better. I can imagine though that there may be cases of room transfers without a system update which may cause problems at times, but they will do anyway, not just for supporting this technology.

diydsp 13y ago

> emergently. As a self-styled knitpicker and guardian of language, I had to look it up. The references I found [1] [2] indicated emergent can mean calling for immediate action or urgent, however, it's only in the weakest use of the word. And I find the adverb form of the word another step weaker. I believe the definition you're highlighting is related to the dictionary definitions referring to "appearing casually or unexpectedly," such as emergent phenomena, which are, arguably slow. These near opposite meanings of the word are unfortunate, b/c people don't really know what sentences using the word are supposed to mean: Is an emergent page one that appeared gradually over time or one that must be attended to immediately? I find the author's repeated use of the word clumsy and non-descriptive. Exactly the kind of trendy abuse of a word to signal self-entitled and undeserved superiority. To get paged emergently doesn't describe the process of getting paged for an urgent issue, since the action of paging is different from the issue (how was the page button pressed?). To "emergently reverse" blood thinners could just as easily have been stated as "quickly, immediately, or urgently." Therefore, I would follow your suggestion and drop use of the word as a high-falootin' synonym of "urgently." [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emergent http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emergent [2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emergent http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emergent

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
scoot 13y ago
'These near opposite meanings of the word are unfortunate, b/c people don't really know what sentences using the word are supposed to mean' By some strange coincidence, there is a discussion on such antonymous words under the current front-page article on mispronunciation of words: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7384406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7384406
blhack 13y ago
Guardian of language? That's a bit of a silly position to take, isn't it? I would say that almost everyone who studies language agress that "guarding" language is bad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription

Fomite 13y ago

> This sounds like a redundant level of indirection. Why not just have a patient-unique QR code on the bed? This necessitates entering the patient's room. A QR code on the door as well allows for accessing information without disturbing their sleep, for example.