2. 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:
3. 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!)
4. 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 developed 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!
5. 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!
6. 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.:
8. 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…
