“H.I.S.-tory” by Vince Ciotti

© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 47:

MedTake Part 1

Bedside Matters• The past two series of HIS-tory episodes covered two of the earliest

micro systems that first placed HIS devices at the patient’s bedside:– NCR’s “PNUT” (Portable Nursing Unit Terminal), circa 1982– CliniCom’s “CliniCare,” launched by Peter Gombrich in 1984

• Although a little out of sequence, this week we are covering the granddaddy of all bedside micro devices, that debuted in the 70s!- This product is so old, even I (whose wife is forever moaning about the boxes in our garage!) don’t have any pictures of it!- The story begins with a start-up from Hauppauge, Long Island, named Patient Technology, Inc, who developed & patented a portable, electronic thermometer called per their patent application:

According to the later prospectus from PTI’s 1983 Public Offering:

- “The SURVALENT thermometry system was originally developed by PTI prior to 1974. In June 1974, PTI sold its rights… to a subsidiary of J&J.

- “The thermometer weighs 10 ounces and is hand carried by the nurse or technician taking the patient’s temperature.”

- I remember seeing a picture of the SURVALENT, which was carried in a small crate (like a 6-pack) that included a battery and about 20 disposable, sanitary probe covers.

- Again from the the prospectus: “Interchangeable color-coded probes (rectal and oral) are provided” (yuk!)

Bedside Product Evolution• Like many Blood Bank vendors can attest, PTI was challenged by

the FDA regulations that governed any device that contacted a patient, so it started development of a radically different bedside device with a far greater resemblance to PNUT and CliniCare:

• This time, instead of “probing” a patient’s body directly for TPR, PTI invented a microcomputer terminal through which RNs would enter data on a keyboard.

• Their real genius was in the keyboard itself – few RNs touch-typed back then (the reason why most MDs shun CPOE today!), so they got a big barrel and threw away all of the “QWERTY” keys!

So Simple, Even I Could Use It!• In place of the usual single-letter keys, PTI had replacements

manufactured with the simple terms that even patient care imbeciles like me could recognize, as can be seen in the enlargement below.

• This simple, almost child-like trick transformed the keys from intimidating, clerical devices to ones that “spoke” words nurses understood!

• (I can still picture that big barrel full of QWERTY keys)

• I remember giving demos of MedTake to DONs (no CNOs back then) at an AONE con-ference, and letting them just peck away to enter TPRs!

And So, MedTake Was Born!• What else to call a device that let’s nurses enter medical data taken

from a patient than MedTake, which PTI began to sell aggressively.• The small bedside units were connected to an IBM PC-XT (“server”

in 2012 parlance), and paper printouts provided by an HP Laser-Jet: • So why would a

hospital spend over $2K per bed for the MedTake system?

• Same reason as the IOM started pushing CPOE back in their (in)famous “To Err is Human” report:Legibility!

• Check out the next page for an e.g.:

Which Would Want In Your Chart?

So Whatever Happened to PTI?• You may remember my oft-quoted maxim from Ed Hamilton, VP of

Sales & Marketing at McAuto in 1980-1982:• “Nothing ever happens until somebody sells something!”

• Well, PTI learned the hard way that hospitals are a tough sell thanks to the ever-challenging financial miasma CFOs must wade through…

• So despite coming up with one of the greatest ideas since sliced bread, PTI struggled to get DONs and CFOs willing to cough up the dough…

• Eventually giving up and selling MedTake to another start-up from across the Hudson…