If the AMA does not publicly display that it understands the urgency of more widespread IT adoption in medicine (which apparently it does not), what hope is there of persuading AMA members to adopt IT? Britain’s equivalent of the AMA — the BMA — is at least showing an interest in the topic of IT […]

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is using state-of-the-art information technology enabling surgeons and anesthetists to remotely monitor and supervise activities in multiple operating rooms. The display technology used in the Vanderbilt system “is here and it has the right price point.” It is bound to have a revolutionary impact on how most of us live, work, […]

Managed care has helped break the bond of trust between doctor and patient, and in the process is reducing the major field of primary medicine into the minor elite niche of VIP medicine. Technology might help the floundering primary care practice by reducing the complexity of primary care practice, but the initial cost will likely […]

Real dissection takes another cut from its nemesis, virtual dissection, as Oregon plans a statewide network of simulation centers to teach anatomy to medical workers. The trend to consumerist care is evidenced by Kentucky supermarkets offering fast, cheap, and convenient medical treatment to shoppers, and by a powerful new cancer risk assessment tool that will […]

A database of four million patient records has begun enabling Mayo Clinic physicians to practice better, evidence-based, medicine; and a hospital is being sued following unsuccessful robot-assisted surgery on a patient, on the grounds that the surgeon did not have enough experience with the technology. Evidence-based Medicine Takes Off at Mayo The Mayo Clinic Life […]

The U.S. government’s push to get people to move to self-care (see the Policy section) is being assisted by corporate advertising (or vice versa). Implant makers have begun to market their devices direct to the prospective implant consumer, which perhaps helps explain why analysts anticipate double-digit growth in heart and reconstructive implants. Part of any […]

The growing number of prestigious institutions and physicians offering online consultation is evidence of acceleration in the adoption of telemedicine. Technology is available that further bridges the gap between online physician and online patient, by allowing for telemetry monitoring and management of the patient’s condition. Tracking technology trends is vital to all practitioners in medicine, […]