Oct 25, 2009
Ultrasound in Your Pocket
Fast Company Blog explores this and other amazing innovations available today in—or coming soon to—a hospital near you.
Near the end, the question is posed:
“Why can’t every hospital be designed like an Apple Store?” Schwartz wondered aloud at the end of the event. I can see it now: Make an appointment online, use the Genius Bar for diagnosis … and associates not only discuss your needs, one-on-one, they can pull up your medical records and accept payment using wireless devices. The hopeful real-life examples offered today seemed to make some headway towards that utopian vision …”
I know Apple adulation is often over the top, but even if you blanch at the phrase “utopian vision”, it’s hard to argue that description of what Apple embodies: for both good (unified experience) and ill (controlled experience). But a hospital designed like an Apple Store isn’t inconceivable. In many ways, the Mayo Clinic is already that and more.
One last thought: with government bureaucrats threatening the world’s last medical safety valve and overwhelming source of medical R&D, is this conference a last gasp for medical innovation, a glimpse into the intangible costs of reform (in the form of a future we’ll forego)?