4. Can We Trust the Computer?
From Scratchpad
[edit] 4. Can We Trust the Computer?
FDA Warns of Online Medicine http://www.fda.gov/buyonlineguide/
With the internet, online purchases are becoming increasingly popular. However, the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, is warning consumers to be very careful when doing so. Not only do misfills happen, but also some online medicine websites are not US licensed, online diagnoses may be inaccurate, your privacy may not be protected, medicine may not be given in correct dosages, medicine may be expired... the list goes on. Is it safe to purchase medicine online? RH- Summer 06
Organs Regenerating on Their Own http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/8b823b576ce1b010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
There has been a lot of controversy over stem cell research. Now, it seems, some doctors have found a much more socially acceptable way to help organs create their own cells. Certain proteins can stop all reactions in the heart that prohibit the growth of new cells. Once those reactions are turned off, the body will begin producing functioning proper cells. Not only will these cells help stabilize any problems with the organ, but the results will be permanent.
The proteins will be injected into the body via a small computerized machine placed in the heart. The machine secretes the proteins periodically and will be taken out once the regeneration is finished. This medical breakthrough could possibly save the lives of millions who have to wait for an organ donor. The only possible drawback would be the cost, and the possible bugs in the system that might have the heart produce too many new cells. - CH Summer 06
http://indmed.nic.in/intmed.pdf
The influence of the Internet on medicine is becoming larger and larger. People are able to use the Internet to communicate with their doctors and look up health issues. Most doctors see the Internet as a helpful tool, but some doctors disagree. One part of the webpage points out that some doctors felt the Internet add to the risk of patient self-treatment. -AL Summer 06
Computer Animation in Medicine
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/ComputerAnimation/App_Medicine.html
Computer animation is used to help doctors get a better image of the body. It not only gives doctors a better picture of the happenings inside the body, but if surgery is required, it helps to increase the success rate. Doctors are able to observe the organs or other body parts and see if there are any problems without invasive surgery. MRI is one example of an equipment that uses computer animation. This tool has helped save many lives because through computer animation, it could detect brain abnormalities that doctors wouldn't have found simply through surgery.
Do you think computer animation will ever be replaced or will it only be developed and improved upon? Is it possible for doctors to someday replace completely the practice of using cadavers and instead use computer animations or will it not be the same? How much can we trust computer animation to be the wave of the future? LC, Summer 2006
Doctor to patient relationship
http://www.soundmedicine.iu.edu/segment.php4?seg=603
This website intrigued me because it tells us that computers will be in every exam room, and that it does provide a lot of benefits like data storage and accurate testing. However, it poses the question about the patient's communication with the doctor. Since doctors are becoming more reliant on computers, the patients would feel less connected to the doctor and will find it hard to ask questions while the doctor is clicking away. Do you think that computers are making doctors less skilled/trained today? Don't you want a doctor that knows what he's doing and not give answers like "the computer's program is dysfunctional", or "the computer can't run these tests for some reason"? Don't many of us judge doctors not only by their qualifications but as a person as well?
JL - Summer 2006
Brain-computer Link Allows A Paralyzed Patient To Perform Basic Tasks
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=47191)
This article examines a recent scientific breakthrough of a computer chip invention that would stimulate brain activities of paralyzed patients so that the patients would be able to perform basic tasks, such as speaking and other simple daily activities.
I thought this invention demonstrates yet another milestone achieved by the amazing computing technology. We all know that computers facilitate work efficiency and communications in our society, but no one seems to realize that computer is being used to save millions of lives.
This new computing technology, which is currently being tested on a selected number of patients because the technology is still new, could be a tremendous help if the technology becomes successful. Not only will millions of lives be saved, but also the society will be more efficient. There will be more research and development expenditure in the industry, which creates more job opportunities and social awareness.
-JL (Summer '06)
The saying "two heads are better than one" refers to the benefits of the EMR system to the medical world. One doctor may be unfamiliar with a particular patient's disease, and would thus, waste both time and resources researching the disease in attempts of finding a cure. The EMR system can eliminate this inefficient allocation of both effort and money by creating an up-to-date database that will be useful to maintain patient records and treatment decisions.
"Substandard care in America kills over 57,000 people and wastes over $9 billion annually." Using this technology and streaming it with the patient's records, treatment decisions can be made immediately and effectively.
Although this advanced system seems to have many benefits to the medical world, it is not widely used yet. Assuming that costs for the technology are made to be minimal, do you think that this EMR system should be implemeneted everywhere? What risks do you think are possible by relying on a routine treatment for every patient? Won't different individual patients have different needs?
http://www.physiciansnews.com/business/804entwistle.html
-MP Summer 06
Have you ever thought of helping mankind cure a disease? What you are not a doctor? Well now is your chance. I found this site that's totally cool. You can help cure malaria by down loading this software and while you e-mailing girlfriend/ boyfriends, surfing the net or just on the catalyst you are curing malaria. The software calculates a formula with the help of those computers registered with the program. Our computers send back the feedback that would take them 150 years to process. ER,summer 2006
http://info.web.cern.ch/Press/PressReleases/Releases2006/PR07.06E.html
http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/20/drugs.idg/drugs.html
This article describes the growing online pharmacy. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using/ordering from a pharmacy online versus going to a store and getting prescription drugs the traditional way. It argues that it will be of a convenience to just have your drugs sent to your door at the click of a mouse, but also the dangers and miss-filling of the drugs as well. Are you willing to take the risk of getting and taking the wrong drug for convenience?
SH SUMMER 06
http://www.ccjm.org/pdffiles/Harris-ed1001.pdf
This article describes the possibilities, benefits, and detriments of handheld computers being used by doctors in the surgery room. On one hand, the use of a computer to instantly access medical or personal knowledge of a specific patient that may not always come to the mind of an exhausted surgeon will no doubt save a few precious lives. However, once again the use of technology to handle private information leads to concerns about the confidentiality of patient-doctor relations. Anybody with one touch could theoretically access a lifetime of medical records. This begs the question: Should computers be used to assist or even replace human doctors? Is human intuition and morals worth sacrificing for the efficiency and unlimited stamina of machines?
- (JX Summer 06)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5167938.stm
This article talks about the invention of a new chip that enables a paralyzed person to control objects using his thoughts. The chip is aimed to allow paralyzed individuals to gain more independence. The chip is basically installed in the motor cortex of the brain and this allows it to control voluntary movement. The chip is not available for regular use yet as it has to be tested for infections and other malfunctions that can occur in the long run.
The major impact from this mind controlling chip falls on the paralyzed and the handicapped. If this chip proves to be usable, then paralyzed individuals can regain independence as they can once again control their limbs. Of course, an ethical issue that arises is whether this kind of technology can be used by criminals who will abuse this mind-controlling device. - MK, Summer 2006.
http://www.physiciansnews.com/business/505glenn.html
This article discusses a low cost speech recognition software that physicians can use to assist patients with general problems. In fact, the author states that this is "one of the fastest growing sectors in the entire health care market." The software can reduce costs of transcription services and can also be customized to the doctor. The software uses something called "Macro" or templates to address specific patient's needs with standard information in a normal exam. The article also considers certain issues that need to be answered before purchasing the software.
The critical thinking question is, do you think there are any potential risks to patients who use the software system? What are the major differences between a computer automated system and the actual doctor? How much should patients be charged to talk to a computer? AL Summer 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-HIV-One-Pill.html
Biotechnology companies have created a pill called "Atripla" and was recently FDA approved and contains three different substances that help to treat people infected with HIV. HIV positive patients must take it each day to slow down the virus growth and create resistance to them. It also inhibits the replication of HIV, but at the same time, is not a cure to the disease. Firms had to use a technique called "bi-layer" technology in order to successfully mold the three drugs, and instead of taking three pills a day, patients only need to take one.
This is important to society because computers and technology have allowed for the development of newer drugs that could potentially benefit a significant amount of people, as 40 million people in this world are HIV positive. This step is somewhat of a breakthrough towards an already developing biotechnology future, where pills and laser surgery help to elongate our lives and make us healthier. With the increase need for better and more efficient tools, this would mean that there would be an increase in the need for healthcare, meaning more personal information would be stored in the databases. Would the tradeoff be worth it? JH, Summer 2006
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060712180101.htm
Stanford researchers have developed 3-D positron emissions (PET) tomography that can fly through and view cancer growing on lungs and colons. Like how the show "CSI" is able to visually guide audiences through the internal workings of an organ, doctors will be able to also. The PET develop combined with the CT scan can help surgeons and doctors detect and see cancerous lesions before operating. This method is a lot more accurate than the previous 2-D models. However, it small and flat lesions will still be difficult to characterize due to size. Nonetheless, doctors will have an even better idea of what needs to be removed before actually doing it. Thus resulting in safer surgeries, more informative and accurate diagnosis and minimal errors in surgical decisions. (TT, Summer 2006)
http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/ahafner/HafnerFilipowiczWhitelyAbstract.html
This website talks about how computers can actually make the doctor profession have more liability. Computers allow physicians to have access to an infinite amount of research, data, and treatments. However, this is not always a wonderful thing? Computers “impose a greater burden on the physician to keep current and to obtain informed consent from patients." If the information is available, are the doctors responsible for knowing it? Can a doctor be sued for not issuing a patient a possibly better treatment because he did not know about it? What if the information was on the computer that was in his office? (SN, Summer 2006)
Computer aided education This article talks about the benefits in learning with the computer for med students and how they improved having this extra learning aid added. With the many advancements in the computers and medicine, many medical students are learning thing through computer training such as surgical techniques. Is is better for students to learn with a similation or with a live person? CA, Spring 06 DK
Computers in the Exam Room This article discussed how computerized technology was everywhere creating efficiency and security, especially in the medical field. The sentence that caught my attention was when the article stated that there is also "...the opportunity for more than one person to access your chart when the need arises." In a way, the tradeoff for this efficiency and supposedly security is still your privacy. The article does not pick up on this too much, but would you be comfortable with more than just a few people with the power to access your health record? Would you want people knowing you had a certain disease or suffered from some type of virus? Basically, what I am trying to say is that the article states that computers in medicine are now are so productive that more than one person could access your chart if they needed to. This means less privacy. ..up winter 2006
See CIS2 Can We Trust the Computer? for submission provided in previous semesters.
3. http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/F089CDB190836887CC256D9D007E928C?OpenDocument
“Computer medicine - Can computers save the pharmas from the FDA?”
The article talks about the increasing cost of drug pharmaceutical trials and how one day a drug designed on a computer and tested using algorithms and logic may soon replace this cycle of manually testing the drug. Ramifications of having computers skip this phase of testing are discussed in the article and so are the economic impacts.
Sun and its competitors increasingly see “computational physiology” as the next big thing, with applications extending from drug discovery to prosthetics (devices tailored for people’s unique physiology), treatment of injuries (by modelling damage to internal organs and structures) and surgery.
(http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/F089CDB190836887CC256D9D007E928C?OpenDocument)
Do you think there will ever be a day where drugs will be manufactured using computers and tested against computer logic for human use?
-Z.S. Spring 06
http://medcenter.uc.edu/pr/findings/archive/2004/septoct/computers.cfm
This article discusses the use of computers to diagnose major illnesses of patients and even suggest methods of treatment. The benefit of having such computers is that vast amounts of data will be able to be stored on the computers and the computers will be able to not only receive data, but utilize the stored information to come up with a diagnoses and treatment method. However, with constant new medical innovations, how can we keep these computers up to date? Should we really trust the diagnoses of a computer over one of a doctor? Will computers replace doctors in many aspects? O.D. Summer 06
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/NEWS07/607130345/1009
This article reports that scientists at Brown Univerisity developed a system that translates thoughts into action with a chip in the brain. A 25 year-old man, who is paralyzed after being stabbed in the neck by an attacker 5 years ago, received the chip implant and now is able to operate a computer, turn on a TV set, open e-mail, play a video game and manipulate a robotic arm with his thoughts. CL Summer 2006
http://medcenter.uc.edu/pr/findings/archive/2004/septoct/computers.cfm This is an article about how the use of computers is helping the medical field. There is new computer technology that can help genetic and clinical information. They are integrating the use of computers in the medical field even further help their patients. JP, Summer 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/15027734.htm
This article is about a quadriplegic named Matthew Nagle, who is able to continue doing tasks with the help of a sensor on his brain that translates his thoughts into actions. This technology is being praised for allowing individuals with paralysis of both arms and legs to be independent. The sensor works by being implanted in the brain, recording signals from the brain and then understanding the signals with the help of software. Disadvantages of this equipment include the patient must be connected with wire from the scalp to a computer and the equipment is not always accurate in processing thoughts. The sensor also has a short life, which could be problematic to remove since it is implanted in the brain. Do you think, from this article reading, that computers offer benefits that outweigh the disadvantages it is capable of committing? Are we becoming too dependent on computers? What if something goes wrong, is this sensor capable of doing a lot of bad, since patients are so reliant on it? What if the computer incorrectly processes a thought and commits crime? Should computers only be allowed to do simple tasks, and not something as complex as reading what a person wants to do?
-TC, Summer 2006
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030426/bob11.asp
The article talks about programming cells that may possible be able to monitor our blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and in the future may be able to detect diseased cells in the human body. These cells made by inserting certain DNA, could be the basis for artifical evolution. AC, Summer 2006
http://www.acponline.org/computer/cimp/zwerling/ This is a detailed account of a physician who has created his own electronic medical record program for use in his practice. Though he mentions a few flaws, for his practice, it has been a huge success. Among the numerous things his program can do, he can keep track of patients' past and present symptoms and flow charts are automatically created that detail the patients' lab results. LK, Summer 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2188120&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
This site talks about how the FDA has recently approved of a new and more cost-efficient digital mammography system, which can help detect breast cancer more effectively than previous film mammograms have. It starts off with the story of a woman named Christina Koenig, who had a mammogram done at age 39 because of a lump in her breast (the mammogram detected no breast cancer). It was only after she had done a biopsy of the lump in her breast that Koenig discovered she had breast cancer (she's in remission now). Since the old mammography system was not as accurate in detecting breast cancer in women younger than 50 (or those who had not gone through menopause yet), the new FDA-approved system would definitely help to lessen the errors caused by previous mammograms. - LC, Summer 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13880104/
Hundreds of lab animals and several research projects destroyed as a result of a power outage at Ohio State Univeristy. JC, Summer 2006
http://www.ethosplan.com/computer-clear.asp
Computer Clear®'s innovative technology provides help in each instance by generating complex resonance patterns. These encoded Homeopathic type resonance patterns resonate with the wavelike behaviour of your body's energy systems. This helps reverse the unhealthy entropic state in the cells caused by electromagnetic pollution. SM, Summer 2006.
http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/F089CDB190836887CC256D9D007E928C?OpenDocument
This article discusses the long journey of a discovered drug, through clinical tests and finally to be approved onto the market. The author cites a scientist who argues that pharmaceutical costs are rising and are taking longer for drugs to be approved. The author also paraphrases the scientist in claiming to create a computer that tests a drug with specific human dna to figure out its boundaries and to skip phases in approval by the FDA. He says that it will also cut costs by 1/10. NY, Summer 2006
http://catalystdev.deanza.edu/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=152 This article discusses the potential of computers to solve the problem of Malaria in Africa, a huge acheivement that would not only greatly help the struggling country, but change the world for the future. IH Summer 2006
Computer Health Chip: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6237364/ According to various websites, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved a computer chip that stores health information inside humans. The purpose of this chip is to decrease the time it takes doctors to obtain patient information. Supporters of this device say that the chip makes visiting various health specialists easier and more convenient. The MSN/NBC article states that "So far, just 1,000 people across the globe have had the devices implanted, very few of them in the United States." CL Summer 2006
http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/F089CDB190836887CC256D9D007E928C?OpenDocument
Clinical tesing has always been a controversial matter. Testing a drugs has resulted with deaths in the past and with this the FDA has made they're restrictions much tighter. It seems so tight that Pharmaceutical companies risk bankruptcy unless they find another way. Many feel that computers will replace some phases in clincal drug testing to bypass these risks.
If this works, whcih is seems to be doing so, the cost of developing medicine will go down and less deaths will results. But can we trust computers to do testing? Are our databases big enough to test for all factors that a clinical drug test would? BN Summer 06
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67429,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3
Artificial retinas could be available by 2008. These devices can help the blind see. This technology will cost between $30,000 and $50,000. “The electrodes stimulate the photoreceptors, which transmit signals to the brain through the optic nerve.” The article says that around 200,000 people in the United States have a disease that could be treatable by this implant. JL Summer 06
http://www.ahrq.gov/RESEARCH/feb01/201RA25.htm
In this website a doctor who has practiced in a situation where there were many advanced computers and in one where there was a lack of computers, the doctor claims that computers make her better. She can interact with the people through email, be notified of drug reactions and clashes quickly, can easily monitor a persons blood pressure and cholesterol, and knows when a patient is due for a check up. My question to you is if there is a way to provide the patients of a low funded inner city hospital with the same benefits that a well funded techonological hospital offers its patients.
-Omer
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