When are emerging technologies ready for clinical use? Three promising innovations show the trade-offs.

摘要

When it comes to clinical decision support software, there's the wish list and there's the real list. The wish list is the collection of IT tools that clinicians would like to have but that remains out of reach for any number of reasons, including that the technology isn't mature enough to use in everyday practice. Over on the real list are things you have to deliver today—if not yesterday—to meet the expectations of patients and doctors as medical practice moves into a new digital age. A number of technologies look poised to make the leap from wish list to reality—software and hardware systems that could only have been dreamed of a short while ago.