This is the app that started it all. When I saw this, I said to myself, I should write a blog.
Pretty flashy icon there.
This is the app that, for a mere $39.99, is going to train you to be a doctor. You know how on Grey’s Anatomy they say, “I need a consult” to mean, “Come here and tell me how to do this thing”? Well, now you don’t have to yell at Dr. McStreamy any more. Because you have him in your iPhone.
With this app, invasive procedures are as easy as 1-2-3! Or, A-B-C.
Thoracentesis, for the record, is when the doctor sticks a long needle into your back to withdraw fluids that are collecting around your lung and making it difficult to breathe. (Thanks, WebMD!) It’s generally considered a safe procedure, though there is a risk of puncturing the lung, and other complications.
Now I want you to imagine something. You are having difficulty breathing. You go to the hospital and eventually you are in an office with a young doctor explaining this procedure to you. You take your shirt off and lean over the table so the doctor can begin. But nothing happens. You turn around, and there is the doctor, checking her iPhone.
“What are you doing?” you ask.
“Oh, just looking to see how this procedure is done,” she says.
Convince me that you would stay after witnessing this. Go ahead. I’m waiting.
This video looks kinda NSFW.
This is not the Thoracentesis app, however. This app includes tips on fully 25 “common Internal Medicine procedures,” including such simple, easy-to-learn tasks as electrocuting yourself (cardioversion), jabbing a needle into your spine (lumbar puncture), threading a plastic tube into your heart (pulmonary artery catheterization), and other walks-in-the-park. Certainly, these procedures are simple enough to learn on the fly via a handheld screen roughly three inches long.
It’s interesting that this app has gotten rave reviews in the real world. I can see why; it’s chock full of extremely detailed information about these procedures, as well as step-by-step instructions and high-quality how-to videos. And I suppose it could be useful as a tool to help squeamish patients better understand the procedure they’re about to endure, by showing them a video of that lumbar puncture, and then letting them play Tap Tap Revenge for a minute while the doctor sharpens the needle. But there are a few problems.
First of all, the information in this app (like the information in most apps) is readily available for free elsewhere. Just for starters, the New England Journal of Medicine has a video up on YouTube of how to do a thoracentesis. Last I checked, YouTube is free and included on your iPhone.
Welllllll ... the shoulder bone's connected to the ... I-Phone!
The bigger concern, however, is the boiling down of nearly every concept known by humankind to its barest possible essentials. No, scratch that; it’s about reducing these things beyond their minimum essence, to the point where they no longer bear any resemblance to their original reality. How else to explain Twitter? Lincoln-Douglas would have been a lot peppier if it had been limited to 140 characters on each side. That may sound like a joke, but there are serious ramifications to this endless reductionism. The space shuttle Columbia blew up partly because NASA officials were unaware of the dangers present on the shuttle, because it was explained to them via PowerPoint rather than a full-length technical document.
One of the positive reviews of this app includes the following bold, if wishful, statement: “Websites and mobile applications will not replace peer-reviewed scientific literature nor the principle of apprenticeship in medical training.” Oh, if only that were true. This is America, pal. There is no shortcut we won’t take. If that means learning how to close up serious lacerations from the pixels on your phone, then that’s our future.
Meanwhile, if you’re a med student being told to get this app, you might be wondering where your tuition money is going. Oh well.
Money well spent.
