Quicksilva thoughts...

IT has had a lot of bad press in recent years in regard to the Health Sector. Here is a story though of how IT can give real ‘value add’ but I find it difficult to imagine why it hasn’t been taken up sooner.

Of course real life experience provided by on the job training is the best form of preparation, but ingraining the repetitive and procedural side of a role is very effectively dealt with by simulators. However I can’t get the vision of a few medical students in gowns playing Sim Brain Surgery, while holding a Wii games controller out of my mind*...

*Other games consoles are available.

Quicksilva thoughts...

We could soon be entering a time of great upheaval in the online space, with issues such as Privacy, Net Neutrality and Censorship proving hot topics around the world. With so much of our lives and our information to be found online, the actions of our gatekeepers to the internet - the ISPs - will be coming under scrutiny as their role shifts from merely a service provider to a source of data for both advertising and policing, and even a censor. As far as the advertising goes, for BT and Phorm to have initially trialled their systems in secret without seeking permission from their customers is potentially worrying - opt-in must be the way forward for systems of this type, in my opinion, rather than the opt-out methods they are putting forward. The days of the ISP being merely a communications provider are coming to an end.

Quicksilva thoughts...

I'm all for improved transparency for public services, but not sure how suited this style of feedback will be?

Customer feedback and ratings can influence my decision whether to buy a product or not... but a product is relatively easy to review... does it work? is it value for money? does it look good?

But a GP on the other hand, how will this style of feedback work for them? I'm pretty sure they didn't sign up for a personality contest and I'm not sure how easy it is to quantify the success of treatment without a better undertanding of healthcare and some form of comparison!

Feedback can be the driving force for improvements and should be encouraged, but care should be taken in considering how it is gathered and how it is then presented in order for it to be useful to you and me.

Quicksilva thoughts...

Happy days!

No longer will you have to queue for ages to get to the bar to then be told your first choice tipple is off; finally get a drink and turn around to bump into some clumsy clod and spill it all down your new outfit!

The benefits to this ingenious revelation are endless; you won't have to worry about remembering your mates really annoying order "I'd like a gin and tonic please, but hold the gin, pour the tonic, add a slice of lime and then complete by adding 1 1/2 cubes of ice" (I mean come on, get on with it) but fear not my friend, you no longer have to remember this concoction just swipe their arm and away you go!

I'm seriously considering human cryopreservation to enjoy this, anyone joining me?!