Roundtable No°6 | 2024: Lessons Learned from the History of Patient Monitoring
Note: The next Roundtable “Present Day – Status Quo of Patient Monitoring” will take place on October 15 at the Berlin Center for Simulation and Training (BeST). Get your tickets now at Eventbrite!
Patient Monitoring – past, present and future. But how did it begin? At our 6th Patient Monitoring Roundtable on September 5, Prof. Ankele explored the history of Patient Monitoring in her insightful keynote. What began as an art – listening to patients, observing them with all senses – was completely transformed by the advent of increasingly advanced technologies. The stethoscope was a turning point – since its introduction, doctors would always listen to their technological aids, not just their patients.
In the 1960s, Monitoring systems were first introduced to hospitals around the world, although the initial reception by physicians and nurses alike was one of skepticism. Staff feared that machines would displace humans from the role of caregiving and healing – a thought that is fundamentally relevant even today. Similar questions drive developments in medical technology today: Will the patient be regarded as a mere source of data?
The panel discussion that followed would provide further insight into these questions and tackled the question of balancing human interactions with technological assistance. Despite its benefits, technology may pose a risk to the quality of care: We must ensure that the patient will remain the central figure in healthcare – making sure not to underestimate the role of caregivers. Only constant training and lifelong learning can help them keep up in this race to the digital future of healthcare!
The key takeaways of our panel discussion were:
Wearables and electronic health records provide new opportunities to strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients.
AI offers exciting perspectives, but the focus should be on usability and safety, not just technological breakthroughs.
Patients and clinicians should be more involved as users in the development of new technologies.
Despite all the technological advancements, humans and their emotions must not be pushed into the background!
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Stiftung Charité and all participants, especially to our panelists Dr. Scharner, R. Troll, Dr. Römer, D. Grünewald, Prof. Hess and Prof. Ankele for their invaluable contributions!
The Patient Monitoring Roundtable is organized and conducted by INCH e.V. (Initiative for Innovation and Collaboration in Healthcare e.V.) in cooperation with the Institute for Medical Informatics at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.