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Jamie Spiegelman, MD; Allan S. Detsky, MD, PhD

JAMA. 2008;299(10):1179-1181.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Human beings have existed for thousands of years, yet the vast majority of technological advances that have improved daily life have taken place in the last 100 years. Why is this so? The stimulus for these advances has largely been from progress in transportation and communication, allowing innovation and ideas to be transmitted from place to place and person to person with increasing ease and decreasing time.¹ Technological progress in communication has been accelerating over the last 20 years and now permits virtually instantaneous transfer of voice, text, and images from almost any location on earth to another.

The advantages of mobile instant communication in business, health care, and personal life are obvious. Middleton and Cukier² and Jarvenpaa and Lang³ have outlined a model labeling these advantages "functional usage." The most apparent advantage is the speed and ability of individuals to receive . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Creating Danger

Author Affiliations: Departments of Health Policy Management and Evaluation (Dr Detsky) and Medicine (Drs Detsky and Spiegelman), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Detsky).