Up Next: The e-Patient Terminal

By Bob Brewin,
Editor at Large

| September 2, 2010

In the almost forgotten era before the Internet, if you were sick enough to go to a hospital, all you had do was lie in bed, have doctors and nurses care for you, and you eventually got better.

What's Brewin

In the almost forgotten era before the Internet, if you were sick enough to go to a hospital, all you had do was lie in bed, have doctors and nurses care for you, and you eventually got better.

Now, thanks to technology, the Veterans Affairs Department wants to develop an Interactive Patient Bedside Care Tool, or an e-patient terminal. The idea is to encourage patients to "be more actively involved in the care process."

VA wants a contractor to turn the bedside TV into an interactive terminal so patients can access the MyHealheVet website, stream educational videos, view a list of scheduled appointments for the day and, who knows, maybe a surgery webcam.

I know this sounds like a great idea, but where or where will the inexorable march of technology stop?

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In the almost forgotten era before the Internet, if you were sick enough to go to a hospital, all you had do was lie in bed, have doctors and nurses care for you, and you eventually got better.