Health tech pioneers in the US are aiming to solve a major barrier to the digitisation of hospitals and doctors’ surgeries.
The last decade has seen the continual shift towards paperless healthcare environments, with forms and documents replaced by e-records and digital health platforms.
For the final push towards complete paperless healthcare systems, however, authorities and decision-makers must overcome what analysts call the “paperless resistance” among clinicians.
Professor Phil Deinkpot, of Californian health tech firm EPsolutions, explains: “In years gone by, the swish of a doctor’s pen would dictate care pathways and treatment regimes. The power yielded in that moment – those frantic scrawlings on a clipboard by the doctor as they march from bed to bed on the hospital ward – are engrained in our ideals of what being a doctor is all about and are difficult to give up.
“Swiping right or left on a tablet does not provide the same pleasure and, as a result, many doctors continue to refuse the paperless revolution often risking their career progress in the process.
“Some clinicians point to double standards – for example, why are birthday cards, colouring-in books and comics still permitted on wards?
“In one extreme in Sweden, a hardcore of ‘pen pushing’ doctors were found to have sabotaged the facility’s digital health system by clogging router LAN ports with ‘soggy moggies’.”
With the paperless revolution at something of an impasse, EPsolutions believes its latest innovation will address this last hurdle towards true paperless healthcare.
ePaper2.1 is a composite smart material which enables doctors to once again feel the satisfactory swish of ball-point on paper.
Nano-sensor technology is embedded beneath a thin sheet of a substance made from wood pulp – manufactured and shipped to the US from EPsolutions’ plant in Portugal. Smart rollerballs, made from re-purposed MontBlanc pens, produce what is believed to be the most authentic synthetic pen experience in the world.
Its per-unit ratio of carbon output and tree-deaths is comparatively lower than that of a national newspaper or global haulage firm, for example.
Once used, each sheet is handed to the hospital’s admin team – where a simple process of logging, categorising, accuracy-checking, data transfer, wiping and reprogramming is completed, using EP’s specialist scanning units.
Professor Phil says: “We believe this is the future of paperless healthcare – harnessing the best of digitisation, while holding on to one of the rites of passage for the newly trained doctor, the chance to wield the mighty power of the pen.”
