From Google to the iPhone: How technology in healthcare has evolved

For most it was a night of partying, for others a period of reflection, and for a few it was a time of uncertainty. We weren’t sure what the new millennium would bring, with crazy stories circulating that the world was going to end. Even if the apocalypse didn’t happen at midnight, the Millennium Bug might strike and we wouldn’t be able to turn on a computer.

As a junior doctor, I was working in A&E that night. I will have been an SHO 1 (FY2 in current terminology). It’s actually difficult to explain the intricate circumstances/interactions that show just how information poor life as a junior doctor was back then.

Not only was Google in its infancy, but the thought of using the internet to inform a decision on how to treat a patient was unthinkable.

We didn’t have an intranet brimming with up to date content either. Any specialist pathway or treatment regime had to be designed, photocopied, laminated, distributed and lord forbid should a pathway change, the whole process restarted.