COMPUTERS AND MEDICINE: DOCTOR'S TRAINING
Physicians now can play computer games to keep themselves intellectually sharp.
A program called CYBERLOG, for instance, deals with one topic at a time- high blood pressure, fluid balance and diabetes. The doctor gets a printed manual plus a floppy disc for a personal computer. The program challenges the physician to solve simulated case problems. The program also gives the doctor the tools to solve real-life medical puzzles- helping determine the correct dose of insulin for a diabetic, for example, or which drug to use for a hypertension patient.
At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, doctors can study simulated medical conditions via telephone on AMA/NET. Medical students at Harvard practice on simulated "computer patients." Similarly, a program for a personal computer called MacDope-developed cooperatively by St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, England, and Mc-Master University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada-allows medical students to administer drugs to computer patients and study the results. DxTER, a privately developed program, provides simulations for medical professionals.
Dr. G. Octo Barnett, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is enthusiastic about computer teaching. But, he warns, "There is a lot you cannot learn on a computer: being compassionate, picking up the nuances of a conversation, reading the patient's face. Computers will never replace enlightened, humane instructors who provide role models and inspiration."
Information Searches
Doctors and medical researchers can use their personal computers to delve by telephone into the vast literature that exists in the National Library of Medicine, which holds 10 million items on diseases, body parts, and treatments.
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