HOUSTON - A Houston-based hospital system is getting international
recognition for putting technology into the hands of its doctors.
The Memorial Hermann Healthcare System has aggressively adapted the Apple iPhone
to its needs. And ultra-hip Apple, in turn, has put Memorial Hermann in its
cyberspace spotlight.
Apple.com now features an article on how Memorial Hermann OB-GYN Dr. Marco
Giannotti uses a new iPhone application called Airstrip OB.
The "app" allows the doc's iPhone to display medical notes and real-time vital
signs on all his patients as they approach delivery.
"So literally I'm seeing what the nurse is seeing at the bedside," Giannotti
says, his phone displaying a chart of fetal heart-rate and maternal
contractions.
"And if I turn it sideways like this," he flicks his finger along the display,
revealing blips from twenty or forty minutes earlier, "I can just scroll back
and instantly get a record of everything that's happened."
"We're absolutely in a new age of medicine," says Memorial Hermann Chief Medical
Informatics Officer Robert Murphy, MD. "This is medicine in the age of
information."
Murphy shows off another "app" that can help ER doctors, for example, if an
unconscious patient comes in with a pocketful of pills.
He chooses "white" from a menu, denoting the pills' color; he selects "scored"
if they have a score-mark down the middle.
The app then displays photos of a small number of medications that fit the
description.
"Just with that kind of information, I can view matches very quickly on the
phone."
"As medicine evolves," says Giannotti, "we're always trying to use the
technology ultimately to better patient care."
