Tag: healthcare

When a loved one calls you from the bathroom at 3.30 in the morning, and you find them collapsed, unconscious on the floor, what does technology do for you? I’ve had the opportunity to consider this over the past few days after a family member was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation which, I’m very pleased to say, seems to have been completely successful. Without it, or if it had failed (the success rate is around 50%), they would, quite simply, be dead now.

We are eternally grateful to all those directly involved in my family member’s care, and to the NHS, which means that there are no bills to pay, just continued National Insurance taken as tax from our monthly pay packets, and which we begrudge not one jot. But I thought it might be worth spending a few minutes just scratching the surface of the sets of technologies which led to the saving of a life, from the obvious to the less obvious. I have missed out many: our lives are so complex and interconnected that it is impossible to list everything, and it is only when they are missing that we realise how it all fits together. But I want to say a huge – a HUGE – thank you to anyone who has ever been involved in any of the systems or technologies, and to ask you to remind yourself that even if you are seldom thanked, your work saves lives every day.

The obvious

• The combined ECG and blood pressure unit attached to the patient which allows the ambulance crew to react quickly enough to save the patient’s life
• The satellite navigation systems which guided the crew to the patient’s door
• The landline which allowed the call to the emergency systems
• The triage and dispatch system which prioritised the sending of the crew
• The mobile phone system which allowed a remote member of the family to talk to the crew before they transported the patient

The visible (and audible)

• The anaesthesiology and monitoring equipment which kept the patient alive during the operation
• The various scanning equipment at the hospital which allowed a diagnosis to be reached in time
• The sirens and flashing lights on the ambulances
• The technology behind the training (increasingly delivered at least partly online) for all of those involved in the patient’s care

The invisible

• The drugs and medicines used in the patient’s care
• Equipment: batteries for ambulances, scalpels for operating theatres, paper for charts, keyboards, CPUs and motherboards for computers, soles for shoes, soap for hand-washing, paint for hospital corridors, pillows and pillow cases for beds and everything else that allows the healthcare system to keep running
• The infrastructure to get fuel to the ambulances and into the cars, trains and buses which transported the medical staff to hospital
• The maintenance schedules and processes for the ambulances
• The processes behind the ordering of PPE for all involved
• The supply chains which allowed those involved to access the tea, coffee, milk, sugar and other (hopefully legal) stimulants to keep staff going through the day and night
• Staff timetabling software for everyone from cleaners to theatre managers, maintenance people to on-call surgeons
• The music, art, videos, TV shows and other entertainment that kept everyone involved sufficiently energised to function

The infrastructure

• Clean water
• Roads
• Electricity
• Internet access and routing
• Safety processes and culture in healthcare
• … and everything else I’ve neglected to mention.

A final note

I hope it’s clear that I’m aware that the technology is all interconnected, and too complex to allow every piece to be noted: I’m sorry if I missed your piece out. The same, however, goes for the people. I come from a family containing some medical professionals and volunteers, and I’m aware of the sacrifices made not only by them, but also by the people around them who they know and love, and who see less of them than they might like, or how have to work around difficult shift patterns, or see them come back home after a long shift, worn out or traumatised by what they’ve seen and experienced. The same goes for ancillary workers and services worked in other, supporting industries.

I thank you all, both those involved directly and those involved in any of the technologies which save lives, those I’ve noted and those I’ve missed. In a few days, I hope to see a member of my family who, without your involvement, I would not ever be seeing again in this life. That is down to you.