Tech bonanza

Today I experienced a sweet technologic convergence that would make any propellor head weep.
Last month, we (finally) got wireless Internet access in the OR. A few of us had already been plugging in cables so we can remotely access our office server, but wireless is soooooo much more convenient.

When I do a clinic at the hospital, I may see up to 20 people. Traditionally, the evening before the clinic, I would make notes from my office computer records to jog my memory about each patient's situation. With wireless Internet, I can have access to my office records live from the hospital. I don't need to make my notes the night before. That saved me 15-20 minutes at the end of a long day.

We also decided to try out Skype's VOIP unlimited calls in North America for about $30. We make lots of long distance calls, so this could save us plenty of money. Today, I tried it out with a USB headset/microphone plugged into my laptop. Excellent sound quality. So far, Skype works great.

So today, I had my computer sitting on the counter outside our clinic room, live access to our electronic medical records, Skype to return any calls from my out-of-town patients, and my PDA running voice recording software to dictate letters which I would download to our remote transcription service.

Nice.