Redefining Medicine With Apps and iPads

Katie Hafner writes this article for the New York Times, and reports the use of technology in the medical world by using examples of a San Francisco hospital. She begins with introducing Alvin Rajkomar, a 28 year old physician, and how he using his iPhone when unsure of how to approach a medical problem. She states that Dr. Rajkomar uses various Apps to file patient history, organize prescriptions, and store clinical helpful hints. She then brings up the argument of patients not getting enough bedside manner by the doctors, since they are becoming more focused on the technology of medicine, and not the patients themselves. This is creating a generational divide in the medical world, since older doctors, such as Paul Heineken, another physician at the same hospital as Dr. Rajkomar, prefers to not use technology as much as possible. Dr. Heineken is 66, and has many students he mentors. Instead of showing them how to operate the X-Ray machine, or chart data on the computer, he takes them to see patients, such as a 90 year old WWII veteran suffering from heart failure. He has them feel what an inflamed heart looks like, not just show them a diagram on the computer. Hafner uses this example to make the reader sympathize with the older generation: why would you turn your back on a suffering, old, war veteran? By using pathos such as this, she causes the reader to lean more towards the older generations argument. But, she then turns it around by stating that Dr. Rajkomar can type so efficiently that he doesn't even need to look at the keys, and can keep his eyes on the patient the entire time. Hafner sets up the new debate of the medical world: at what point does technology stop becoming a benefit, and more of an inconvenience, or something that keeps us from being humane?