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Taming the Technology Beast
Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP
JAMA. 2008;299(24):2898-2899.
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The miracles wrought by better health care technologies abound—like mended hearts, leukemias cured, noninvasive images, and organ system monitors. But with artificial heart valves came new risks from infections and anticoagulation; with the breakthrough of intrathecal methotrexate to cure leukemia came new deaths from intrathecal vincristine given by mistake; new monitors began sounding new false alarms that could drive nurses and patients crazy. Electronic medical records mitigate some problems1 and introduce others.2 Every new technology, like every new drug, brings good and bad news.
In this issue of JAMA, the report by van der Togt and colleagues3 on electromagnetic interference (EMI) from radiofrequency identification (RFID) technologies affecting other medical equipment in intensive care units is of urgent significance. RFID devices are part of modern life, like the transponder on the car windshield that pays the toll automatically and the security card that permits . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Author Affiliation: Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
RELATED ARTICLE
Electromagnetic Interference From Radio Frequency Identification Inducing Potentially Hazardous Incidents in Critical Care Medical Equipment
Remko van der Togt, Erik Jan van Lieshout, Reinout Hensbroek, E. Beinat, J. M. Binnekade, and P. J. M. Bakker
JAMA. 2008;299(24):2884-2890.
ABSTRACT
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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Technology and Its Unintended Consequences
Journal Watch Hospital Medicine 2008;2008:1-1.
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