Technology Initiatives

Both the residents and faculty involved in neurology at Partners believe that technological innovations can and will have a tremendous impact on health care and the medical sciences. The Partners Neurology Residency Training Program and Department of Neurology have been instrumental in utilizing currently available technologies and advancing the use of new devices and methods in health care.

Department computers and equipment:

Both the MGH and BWH rely heavily on networked computers for patient care with computerized order entry, laboratory reporting and inpatient and outpatient notes. The Department of Neurology makes extensive use of clinical digital images (MRI and CT in particular) which are available on networked computers throughout the hospitals. Because of this usage all of the clinical floors have a number of Pentium-class personal computers which are in hospital network. In addition, resident libraries and offices in both BWH and MGH have additional PCs and Macintoshs with the latest Microsoft Windows, Office software, Movie making software, scanners and color printers as well as other resources for data analysis, presentation and publication preparation. There are two digital cameras available for residents to record examinations of patients for educational and clinical purposes.

Personal equipment and mobile computing:

In addition to access to the department technology resources, each resident is given a PDA at the beginning of his/her training. These are utilized for scheduling, drug databases, notetaking, calculations and a variety of other purposes depending on the needs and desires of the individual user. The program is currently evaluating more advanced PDAs which also allow for wireless internet and email access and telecommunications. There are also ongoing plans for wireless access to clinical databases and order entry.

Telemedicine:

The MGH Stroke service has been a pioneer in the implementation of telemedicine; the evaluation and diagnosis of patients remotely using video conferencing, web based data transmission and viewing (please see http://www.telestrokecenter.com).