Some hospitals in France are considering experimenting with Anoto’s digital pen and paper system to make sure that handwritten notes about patients get properly recorded and added to their health records:
The key to the technology is the complex pattern of dots printed on paper sheets…A pen fitted with a tiny camera can read the dots on the paper and work out where it is and what is being written with it…By printing the charts on the patterned paper it becomes possible to swiftly create a “digital double” of everything nurses record on the health chart. The pattern on the paper makes it possible to ensure that information about temperature and other vital signs shows up in the right place on the computer copy. Information is uploaded to a central computer system when the pen is replaced in a docking cradle at the nurses’ station on a ward. Every piece of information recorded on the chart is also time stamped to give a doctor a better idea of how a patient is progressing and to help highlight any worrying trends in their life signs.
