Communication is precious to Bruce Hansen, a physician's assistant who is deaf in his left ear and has 35 percent hearing loss in his right.
In Hansen's view, the traditional way doctors, nurses and physician assistants interact with patients and record their observations is fraught with inefficiency and room for error.
At hospital shift changes, much of the information is communicated orally, with the newcomer subjectively choosing what to write down. Compound that potentially incomplete process with the infamously inscrutable handwriting of medical personnel and problems inevitably arise, said Hansen.
"There's no business in the world that operates like that," said Hansen, who lives in Cape Elizabeth.
For the past four years, he's been developing a database software system for personal digital assistants that streamlines the recording of patient examinations. It replaces jottings and scrawl with an intuitive and easy-to-use electronic format.
He hopes the platform will be useful to any medical employee, helping them make the best use of their increasingly limited time. The software is being tested for durability, and Hansen believes it will soon be on the market.
"The UPS man is doing it; why isn't medicine doing it?" said Hansen.
The platform, named pdachart, already has proved to be a boon for Hansen professionally and personally.
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