Signs barring cell-phone use are a familiar sight to anyone who has ever sat in a hospital waiting room. But the (26)_____ popularity of electronic medical records has forced hospital-based doctors to become (27)_____ on computers throughout the day, and desktops—which keep doctors from besides —are (28)_____ giving way to wireless devices.
As clerical loads increased, “something had to (29)_____, and that was always face time with patients,” says Dr.Bhakti Patel, a former chief resident in the University of Chicago’s internal-medicine program. In fall 2010, she helped (30)_____ a pilot project in Chicago to see if the iPad could improve working conditions and patient care. The experiment was so (31)_____ that all internal-medicine residents at the university now get iPads when they begin the program. Johns Hopkins’ internal-medicine program adopted the same (32)_____ in 2011. Medical schools at Yale and Stanford now have paperless, iPad-based curriculums. “You’ll want an iPad just so you can wear this” is the slogan for one of the new lab coats (33)_____ with large pockets to accommodate tablet computers.
A study of the University of Chicago iPad project found that patients got tests and (34)_____ faster if they were cared for by iPad-equipped residents. Many patients also (35)_____ a better understanding of the illnesses that landed them in the hospital in the first place.
