Mobile, smartphones and Medicine

Sometimes I realize I’m thinking about what Chacrinha (one of the biggest brasilian TV presenter dead in 1988) would do in the age of mobile technology. Certainly Chico Science (Famous brasilian singer dead in 1997) would post your ideas on facebook and twitter. No shortage of speculation about the future, or rather about the present when we are talking about the internet technology. Moreover a hacker from north american said that the smartphones are government tool for spying, giving up older expensive devices.

Regardless of discussions among TV presenters, hackers and singers, the communication revolution, specifically when we talk about social media and smartphones, is very usefull in medicine. They are bringin online and real-time current opinion and also facilitate communicating among members of staff and improving the approach to the patients. Besides the discussion at real-time of controversial cases in scientifical fóruns on social media are making diagnoses and treatment easier.

The communicate between staffs, residents, fellows and chief, and also nurses and another members of multidisciplinary team could be easier through e-mail groups where you can write reminder and pending, as well general information. The Facebook and LinkedIn can bring union between persons and can host fóruns where we can talk to colleagues from another countries and discuss our more difficult decisions. Nowadays the surgeon capture the image of CT scan and share with doctors from all over the world. The LinkedIn is a network, more usefull when we are talking about job opportunity, indication and Professional reference. Recently, the world had the first brain surgery, transmitted in social media on the United States and was watched for about 14 million people amongst doctors and general people. Today we have a chance to share a vídeo of our surgeries with another doctors and get other opinions, improving the outcome.

When we are talkin about medical education, the mainly apps are twitter and RSS feeds. Through them is possible to sign and follow some journals and medical association and receive current papers, general news and informations about congresses and simposium.

Sharing pdf files, text and excel documents besides pictures and vídeos with another members of team is possible thanks to “cloud” technology. Nowadays the resident elaborates an abstract and before submit to next congress, he shares with the staffs and chief to check if it’s correct. The main apps are DropBox and iClouds.

Although all this Technology and promises, the most important issue is the conscient use of this tools, bringing the better approach to the patient without his exposure. It’s essential to respect the privacy of the patients and medical ethics. If the doctors knows the perfect way to use this tools above, undoubtly the most benefited is just the patient.

“Computers make art and artists make money” (Chico Science)

Bernardo de Andrada