Volo Agitato (Shaking Flight) by Futurist, Tullio Crali, 1938
As I reflect on the rapid evolution of information and communication technology, not only in our worldwide civil societies, but even in what we might describe as “uncivil” societies, I realize that at least in healthcare this has almost become a revolution.
It is not violent in the form that induced Marinetti to eventually support Mussolini and Fascism in pre-war Italy’s 1930s and early 1940s, but its speed and disruptive nature have foreshadowed and accelerated the virtual destruction of libraries and museums.
When I can do an instantaneous search online for every image or video of the visual arts and all important handwritten or printed hardcopy material, not to mention music…why would I need to support a library or museum? … (a rhetorical question since I hope the reader knows the answer lies in the nature of the human condition).
Is the mobile internet and the smartphone a “killer combination” and stealth WMD?
In any case, we are living in a wonderful age where patient care has been enhanced immeasurably with the IT tools we are seeing now and it will continue in this positive, though very disruptive trend for years into the future.
We can celebrate the vision and insight of Marinetti without embracing his excess, always mindful of George Santayana’s 1905 epigram:
“Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.”
About tsullivan:
Dr. Sullivan is a practicing cardiologist who joined DrFirst in 2004, just after completing his term as President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He is known throughout the healthcare industry as the father of the Continuity of Care Record (“CCR”) and a leader on the future of healthcare technology. He is assisting DrFirst in ensuring that Rcopia continues to add the functionality necessary to maintain its leadership position both in electronic prescribing and in the channel of communication between various sectors of the healthcare community and the physician. Dr. Sullivan is active in organized medical groups at the state and national level, and is both a delegate to the AMA and the Chairperson of their Council on Medical Service as well as past Co-Chair of the Physicians EHR Consortium.
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