The Computer Revolution in Medicine

Abstract

The computer is only a few decades old, and its extensive commercial use is barely two decades old. Its use in medicine is far more limited than in trade and industry. To date, software programs available for any medical use are a mere handful. In every other branch of the economy of comparable size, the market is flooded with many alternatives. The use of computer-based machinery in medicine, such as the highly publicized computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanner, is much less extensive than in other industries. Only recently, for example, the robotic hand, originally designed for the automobile industry, was adapted for brain-tumor removal. Most computer use in medicine is limited to a place on the clinic receptionist’s desk and not in the diagnostician’s clinic. Yet the computer has effected a quiet revolution in medicine. Its impact is exciting and extremely beneficial yet one cannot responsibly overlook it as a potential source of great worries.