The Digital Doctor Chapter Summary

Robert Watcher, in his book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, describes the many effects, both helpful and harmful, that have distinguished this age of computers in medicine. Watcher uses his influence as the professor and associate chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and his years of experience in the field of medicine, to look down on the developing world of technological medicine and offer his own opinion. Just from the title one can gather that not all is right with the field at present. His interesting and amusing narrative intends to combine the rapid development of technology, with the age-old science of medicine, and hopefully fix what has …show more content…
At this point the relationship that existed between doctor and patient has been stretched to non-existence. He mentions the importance of eye contact when dealing with patients and how impersonal it can feel when the doctor is focused on their computer or tablet, and not showing any interest of the patient. Another recent example of miscommunication in the doctor’s office was when Thomas Duncan came to a Texas hospital with a fever and other strange symptoms. The doctor who saw him didn’t look at his EHR, which had been recently changed by a nurse to say he had just returned from Liberia. If he had maybe he would have realized that Thomas Duncan was the first patient in the United States to have the Ebola virus. Sadly he didn’t, he sent Duncan home hoping the fever would pass. Duncan would return three days later after having exposed many to the virus. He died ten days after being admitted. The problem was that technology has severed the bond that used to exist between doctors and their patients. The doctor of today is only focused on symptoms and diagnosis, with no regard as to where the patient might have