Doctors Want Their Mobile Phones

from the please,-please-let-us-connect dept

There have been some questions lately on why exactly hospitals ban mobile phones. The common reasoning, of course, is that the phones may interfere with medical equipment -- but most medical equipment is pretty well shielded, and there are lots of other items, such as emergency service radios that would seem likely to cause a lot more interference, but don't. So, now, many doctors in the UK are standing up and saying the ban on mobile phones should be dropped. They point out that risks are minimal, and it would make their lives much easier. They also point out (probably quite accurately) that they're positive plenty of people are wandering around hospitals all the time with mobile phones turned on in their pockets, and they don't see why they should be banned. Of course, there are other reasons for keeping mobile phones away from doctors -- such as the fact that they can pick up germs. Good thing there's now a sterilizing phone charger.
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  1. identicon
    Mohammad Mahabubul Islam, 1 Jul 2004 @ 11:49am

    sms based business

    please tell me the details way of sms based business for bangladesh

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2004 @ 1:57pm

    CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW ?

    My sister-in-law kept her cell phone on the entire time she was in the hospital for the birth of my niece. She kept it on vibrate so no one would be the wiser.

    I would think the ability of a Dr. to have a cell phone available would be an important communication tool and damn near a necessity. I don't blame Dr.'s for fighting to use this technology in their work.

    No one ever seems to be able to prove these interference claims.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    anonymouse, 1 Jul 2004 @ 2:43pm

    No Subject Given

    Cell phone? Hotbed of bacteria?
    Then I guess they should ban all doctors from wearing ties also

    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/175156_hsecondary27.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    dorpus, 1 Jul 2004 @ 2:43pm

    Blood pressure and stress

    Today, I heard presentations on interesting experiments done in the USA to measure the connection between blood pressure and stress -- they gave patients difficult math problems, and purposefully gave them wrong answers to make their blood pressure rise. They also gave them difficult video games which they kept losing at. Or in another one, they made patients dip their hand in ice water for 10 minutes.

    Some patients' blood pressures go up just at the sight of a doctor, known as "white coat hypertension"; while other hypertensive patients will lower their blood pressure just by coming into the hospital.

    Could we design a new experiment where patients have to endure a really obnoxious cell phone chime going off next to them, followed by the recipient yelling into the phone in a foreign language?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Nate, 1 Jul 2004 @ 3:43pm

    No Subject Given

    When my daughter was born in February, I had my cellphone on the entire time. The transition nurse even told me that it would be a good time to call the family with the news while she was doing the baby cleaning since I would have a couple of minutes. There was no issue with cellphones in that Hospital at all (Chandler, Arizona - outside Pheonix). I didn't even give it a second thought.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    dorpus, 1 Jul 2004 @ 6:59pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Next time you have a baby, you might want to make sure they clamp the umbilical cord shut before flushing it out with benzyl alcohol. The umbilical cord is like a little vacuum pump, so if the nurse is drunk or high, she might forget to clamp the cord before dipping it in antiseptic, and you'll have a baby pumped full of antiseptic.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Mark, 2 Jul 2004 @ 1:32am

    And of course...

    ..the banning of mobile phones is entirely unrelated to how much money hospitals make from call charges on the fixed-line phones they supply to patients.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Beck, 2 Jul 2004 @ 6:31am

    Ban

    Looks like they need to ban Dorpus from the hospital.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    dorpus, 2 Jul 2004 @ 9:16am

    Re: Ban

    Careful now, you're talking to a future medical researcher here. I'll see what happens when I inject your baby with a horse syringe.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2004 @ 9:56am

    Banning dorpus

    If dorpus is a " future medical researcher " I hope to God he does a study on why he is always so off topic yet strangely amusing.

    Remember kiddies,

    DON'T FEED THE DORPUS !

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    JJ, 7 Jul 2004 @ 12:56am

    Germ-ridden phones and ties

    No cell phones? And no ties? Why stop there?

    Everything the doctor wears has germs, right? My Ivy League educated doc dresses to the nines - navy pinstriped suit (maybe $2,000?), mirror-shined shoes that must go for 6 or 7 hundred, and of course the designer silk tie. Next time I see him, I'll demand that he step out of the tasseled Italian loafers and the Brooks Brothers socks, (germs, you know!) and hand over his tie - and the monogrammed cufflinks (you just don't know WHERE they've been!) and of course, the cell phone. Then, when he's barefoot and tieless, I'll allow him to proceed.

    I MIGHT allow him to keep the fancy business suit - but I MAY threaten a lawsuit....if he doesn't swap the tailored Armani for a hosptal gown. Now THAT is germ-free!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Geoff, 12 Jul 2004 @ 1:21pm

    Cellphones and hospitals

    It should be pointed out that Addenbrookes Hospital here in Cambridge UK has a galaxy of cellphone base station transmitters etc mounted directly above the intensive care wards. I guess the RF and microwaves may sterilize the place :-)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Steve George, 21 May 2006 @ 8:28pm

    Near PC

    whats the new motorola music phone called? Steve

    link to this | view in thread ]


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