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OSU med students get in ‘Touch’ with new ways to deliver patient care

Posted on | March 4, 2009 | 1,434 views |

By Adam King

There’s a vast amount of information one is required to know in order to become a doctor.

But knowing it isn’t enough; retaining it is the key to being effective.

Not even 10 years ago, doctors carried with them their “peripheral brains” — notations made in a notebook or on note cards with how they handled a certain medical situation, how drugs interacted or key phone numbers they had to have handy.

Those days are so over at the Ohio State Medical Center ­— ended for good the day Palm personal data assistants first were distributed to students and interns in 2001.

People in the Med Center have never been shy about keeping up with trends.

Now a new pilot program that provided an Apple iPod Touch to every first- and third-year medical student and intern in 2008 continues to push the boundaries where technology and medicine intersect.

“This is about training people for the future,” said Andrew Thomas, associate dean of Graduate Medical Education. “When people used their ‘peripheral brain,’ as soon as they wrote it down, it risked being out of date. With the iPod, the software is constantly updated by the vendors.”

In the palm of their hands, the 850 students and 650 interns and fellows can now access, in a user-friendly platform, virtually anything they would need to help a patient or make a diagnosis.

“There’s medical decision-making software, special formula calculators that help with drug dosing and other physiology, and online textbooks,” Thomas said. “The drug database is one of the key things, which can help determine complications, side effects, cost and drug-to-drug interactions. For those that utilize it and like that technology, it’s very effective for them. I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments of how they think it’s a better interface than what we have had in the past.”

There is still a percentage of students and doctors who never open the box, however, because either they’re not inclined to use it or have no need for it because of the many rolling laptops and desktops available on patient care units. Also, there are some specialties that find this technology less useful than others due to the type of work they do.

“We think it’s a tool that more and more people are using, but they are not required to use it,” Thomas said.

Third-year medical student Justin Harper spearheaded the effort to begin using the iPod Touch. He said he prefers Apple’s platform because he can access his reference materials almost as quickly and easily as he would on a laptop.

“And you don’t have to lug a laptop around, either,” said Harper, who, like 50 percent of his classmates, actually uses an iPhone, which has the same functionality as a Touch just with a phone added. “It bridges the gap in knowledge. I’m early on in my training and have a lot to learn still, but I can access whatever references I need to fill in that gap. It’s enhanced patient care because I can give them the best information and most complete care that is possible.”

Harper has been receiving e-mails from other med centers and medical faculty and students from around the country inquiring about the pilot program.

“Ohio State already has a good reputation for being a wired and technologically advanced medical center, and this program just adds to that,” Harper said. “The amount of information out there, any physician is hard-pressed to remember all that exists, especially if it crosses different specialties or fields. Having something that helps with that all the time is really useful.”

Of course, Harper said, the “cool” factor doesn’t hurt either. He admittedly puts his favorite music, movie clips and podcasts on his iPhone in addition to lectures and reference materials.

“By doing that it actually encourages people to have it with them all the time,” Harper said. “Very few people actually carried the Palm with them. It was bulky and didn’t provide as much utility. The fact people want to carry the Touch or iPhone whether they’re using them for medical applications or not, the devices are in their pockets when they do realize they need them.”

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