Microsoft Surface – Revisited
Microsoft continues to develop its Surface application for the medical field. Infusion has a good review of its Doctor-Patient Consultation Interface. There is no question there is value in any tool that instructs and informs patients regarding disease processes and treatment options. Nothing quite replaces visual images for educational impact. There is also a nice consultation component that can help improve communication between the referring and consulting physicians.
I am impressed with the work being done, but a couple of thoughts come to mind. The first is the obvious security issue of using an ID card that provides access to patient data contained within an EHR such as HeatlhVault. I have no doubt Microsoft is aware of this and will construct the appropriate safeguards. The second thought I had concerns Clinical Decision Support (CDS). While educating the patient is important, physicians also require timely access to clinical guidelines, appropriate alerts, and even diagnostic suggestions and support. To date, CDS systems have not been widely adopted because they typically don’t fit well with physician work flows. It would be interesting to see how the features of Microsoft Surface can help solve some of these problems.
